"And a little child shall lead them"

My head has an interesting mix of ideas this morning.

It's Christmas Eve, and my two of my adult children are already hard at work (I shall soon join them - maybe - for I might be banned from the kitchen in favor of their bonding) preparing our traditional twelve course, Eastern European Christmas Eve dinner.

In the BryonySeries world, it's the day dedicated to werewolves.

And last night, Timothy did an extremely imaginative photo shoot with Bertrand for his first cookbook that Rebekah put together: she prepared and shot all the recipes and formatted the book. I was the taste-tester.

In fact, Timothy staged, and then took, such an interesting mix of photos that we can use most of them (with a few more) for another Bertrand the Mouse book.

Yes, I am going somewhere with this.

During the editing process of "Bryony," the first book in the BryonySeries, my publicist (back when I had a publicist) complimented me on how "in touch" I was with my inner child.

Last night, Timothy showed off his creative inner child, a child he once thought he'd lose.

During this time of year in our newspaper delivering days, we listened to Christmas music as we delivered, including recordings of my favorite albums growing up.

One of them included this version of this song. 

Except we rarely listened to it because it made Timothy sad. I shared a memory of my thoughts when I was eight and trying to picture what that meant.

Fortunately, it didn't come true for any of us; the borders are still there, and we can go in and out whenever we wish. And it showed last night.

So Christmas Eve, BryonySeries werewolf day, Bertrand the Mouse, childhood and childlike attitude - all of these made me think of this verse: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb...and a little child shall lead them." Isaiah 1:6

However you worship and wherever you are in your faith journey and approach to life, may you always retain a sense of wonder, awe, and good-old fashioned playfulness.

Now, here is a sampling of Bertrand's culinary adventure. For who else to lead Bertrand through the experience than a professional chef?