Aaron said something pretty funny on the way to the Easter Vigil Mass last night. It was about our Dog Max’s stuffed black sheep that came with him on Christmas Eve last year. That’s the day when Santa, good old St. Nicholas, decided to drop a dog on our doorstep.

Yep, our new dog Maxwell Birkenstock came to us on Christmas Eve. I haven’t really wrote about him very much, I mean the nature of his arrival, or that fact I do now have a dog living under my roof. That will be for another post. This post is about the black sheep.

If Max had a favorite toy this would be it. The black sheep was as big as he was on Christmas Eve. He would drag it by the ears around the hardwoods while tripping over it every other step. Max is bigger now and he still loves that black sheep. In some cases he shows it too much love. Every so often it becomes an awkward moment when Max is “loving” his toy and Aaron innocently says, “Aw, how cute! Max is hugging his favorite sheep!” Joey responds with a quick 14 year old response of a laughter filled “Yeah, he’s hugging it alright. Look at him go.”

Aaron said in the car last night on the way to Church that he realized why Santa brought the black sheep with him on Christmas Eve. He said “Santa is really St Nicholas, so it makes sense that he would bring a sheep with him. Because Jesus was a shepherd, and St. Nicholas was one of his saints.”

A nice revelation from a nine year old on the way to church. I’d be lying if I said I made the connection earlier.

He then followed it up with “Or maybe he just happened to have one
on hand in the sleigh… yeah probably.”

Happy Easter.