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December 22, 2006
Will we believe in Santa?
Growing up we had so much fun leaving Santa a plate of cookies and even some carrots for the reindeer and he would even write us a note back. It was magical, fun and certainly exciting for us. On the other hand since we weren't christians at the time, there was not much of a focus on the true meaning of Christmas. Even after we became christians and Christmas morning would arrive there was this sense of emptiness once the presents were all open and wrapping paper was everywhere and the excitment was over by 7am. I don't want that emptiness for my girls. I've gotten to experience Christmas several times now with Andy's family and I really love the pace of the day. I think when they were little they got to open their stockings first and then everyone gets ready and has breakfast together. Then his dad plays the piano and they sing some carols, read the Christmas story and then they pray aloud. Of course Andy reminds me that this process was super long when he was little and he was never more helpful then on Christmas morning, jumping up to help clear the table. But it seemed like to me that by the time we got to presents, which were opened one at a time, it took the focus off of self and placed it on celebrating others and being more reflective during the day. It was a great way to celebrate. I remember not wanting the day to end the first time and it didn't till almost dinner time.
I've been taking my own mini survey of those around me, or at least parents that I respect, trying to find out where people fall on the Santa thing. Mostly I'm finding that people will celebrate it or say that a certain toy is from Santa but their kids know that its kind of a pretend game. In my heart I just don't think I want to encourage the belief in Santa. To me it some how threatens the focus of what the day is really about. Next year I would love to get a book with the history of St. Nick so that she can make the connection and we're not just avoiding the discussion all together.
I was talking to a mother yesterday about this who was adamant that I make sure, if I was going to (dare I say) tell Lizzie the truth, that she won't "ruin" it for other kids. She even went so far as to say, "if she told my child then as a mother I would be upset with you". You know, to that I have to say, I just don't feel like its my responsibility to endorse whatever you might be telling your child at home. Now I have to say I can kind of understand her point of view, I would ruin the magic for their household (whatever) and I'm not going to encourage Lizzie to tell everyone that Santa doesn't come to our house but I'm also not going to tell her that its a secret or something. What if someone tells Lizzie that there IS a Santa, couldn't I say that would "ruin" what we were celebrating? It all seems so silly to me. "Make sure your kid doesn't tell my kid the truth or I'll be mad at you."
There is certainly a part of me that loved the excitement of going to sleep and wondering what magic we would wake up to, and I wonder if Lizzie and Julia will miss out on that. But its way more important to me that we teach them the real reason for celebrating, the birth of Jesus Christ.
Posted by JennR at 9:36 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
December 15, 2006
Blooper Christmas Card
LOL, I so badly wanted to use this card! But we went with a more civil version. I had visions of girls in their dressy Christmas outfits in front of the tree with the little white twinkle lights but yesterday they were playing on their swing set and there was no dirt on their faces so I grabbed the camera.
Posted by JennR at 8:51 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 14, 2006
It's here!
My birthday Katrina Kaye bag finally arrived 5 weeks later!! I guess shipping from Amsterdam was slow.
The fabric is more textured than I expected and its very vibrant and I love it!
I spent the afternoon at Lizzie's mothers day out Christmas party. I picked up one of her projects that was a Christmas list the teacher wrote for them and this is hers:
"What I want for Christmas by Lizzie"
1. A music box (this is actually a Jack in the box I found out today and she said that her Aunt Deb was getting it for her so I might need to make sure Debbie knows that a "music box" is really a Jack in the box)
2. A new baby we can feed with a bottle (the teacher made a point to come over and tell me that this meant a real baby and not a doll. And how in the world does my daughter know that I hate nursing and we'd probably bottle feed IF we had another)
3. More blocks for me (sick of sharing with Julia I guess)
Then they did a list for what I can give.
Her only funny one there was "Lipstick for my mommy because she only has one."
How random, this is probably because I didn't let her use my carmex this morning. She is so silly.
Posted by JennR at 3:20 PM | TrackBack
December 12, 2006
Trimming the tree and a bit of confusion
We finally got our tree up last week, I don't know why I felt so behind it actually wasn't that late. I only put about half my ornaments up since I didn't know how Julia would be with the tree, so it looks a little bare. I love going through my ornaments. Andy and I try to get an ornament everytime we go somewhere on a trip so we have one from our honeymoon, our trip to Puerto Rico, a Minuteman from Boston, and one from our trip to Jekyll Island. The girls each get an ornament every year. I try to get something that reminds me of them for the year. Lizzie of course got Strawberry Shortcake and Julia got a ducky. She loves rubber duckies so I found a miniature rubber ducky keychain online and I'm going to take the keychain part off and put a hook on it. I write an initial and the year on the bottom of their ornaments because even though Lizzie is only 3 I am already forgetting whose is whose. Shameful. I actually saw a baby picture the other day of one of them and couldn't figure out who it was, UGH! It must be the age thing, LOL! Just kidding.
Yesterday I was out raking leaves and Lizzie was out with me painting with her side walk chalk paint. She said, "Look mom, its a fairy godmother." I asked her what that was and she said, "you know, she has a wand, and she chased Joseph to turn him into a cow." I asked, Joseph who? "You know, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus." Ok, I think we have a few stories mixed together. I tried to explain that there was no fairy godmother in the bible and that was just pretend but she was already flitting off to do something else. She has also been asking me if we are going to put the tree back up for Daddy's birthday and for her birthday since its up for baby Jesus's birthday. Oh my. . .
Posted by JennR at 9:15 AM | TrackBack
December 4, 2006
20 shopping days???
No way, I was grocery shopping in Walmart tonight and saw a sign that said, 20 shopping days till Christmas. I am still recovering from momentary freak out. If anyone has any information on how to make time slow down I would greatly appreciate it!
We survived our trip out west for Thanksgiving and had a blast. There were 57 people for Thanksgiving dinner, late nights talking with aunts, lots of games, roller skating and of course our Strasser Turkey Bowl.
Andy and Julia in the Chicago airport
The girls travelled well and adjusted well to the time change. We love our portable dvd player!
Highlights of the trip included Julia puking on me in the Chicago airport after choking on a pizza crust, Lizzie giving me a very loud explanation of how boys and girls go to the potty differently in the airport restroom while making other comments which I will not write here, catching a pass and making a touchdown in the turkey bowl, seeing family I only see every two years and the lovely snow storm we got to play in the last few days we were there.
All my thanksgiving pictures are on our flickr site.
We got back late Tuesday evening and on Friday were headed down to Atlanta for a wedding on Saturday with Andy's family. It was fun to see Andy's parents and his sister and from what I saw of the wedding it was really beautiful. I spent most the time in a nursery room playing with the girls. At the end of the wedding I brought them out into a foyer area outside the chapel so they could see the bride and groom walk by and then I had them sit on a couch while the wedding party came down the aisle. Julia was standing on the love seat and the guests started to come out and I was looking for Andy when all of a sudden there was this loud alarm and strobe light blinking. My precious 20 month old pulled a fire alarm which was right above the back of the couch. Needless to say that moment made top 5 most humiliating moments in my life. The snotty bridesmaids were laughing and pointing and smiling at me sypathetically, BLECK! It was the longest 5 minutes of my life. I was SO ready to go after that and thankfully JLG had a Tom Collins waiting for me when we made a stop in at the Goseys for dinner before returning home.
So now my tree isn't up and I don't have any gifts purchased but all in good time I guess. A close friend of mine received amazing news today and I find that my mind is only on that lately. God is so good!
Posted by JennR at 10:24 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack