As I've stated many times in previous blog posts.. I love holidays! & Christmas is no exception. I love Christmas! I love getting the decorations out after Thanksgiving dinner, & decorating every inch of my home.. except that doesn't really happen because I only have a few decorations. But that is something I look forward to doing in the future when we aren't dirt poor students. Anyway.. I love listening to Christmas music & watching a Christmas movie every day until Christmas is over. I love the feeling that comes when it's the Christmas season! I love the traditions.. gift giving.. the desserts.. well.. I love EVERYTHING about Christmas to put it simply. & This Christmas seasons has got to be one of the best. Why you ask? Because of a cute little chubby baby girl named Elsie. She may not remember ANYTHING about her first Christmas or even care about anything that is going on.. But I will remember & even though she has no clue what is going on.. she has shown excitement about some things.
For instance. She
loves the Christmas tree. Any chance she gets she kneels on one knee with the other leg propped up in a squat-like stance. & her eyes twinkle with innocents & wonder as she points up at it. I absolutely love it! It makes me realize how much this season is so much better with children! I love watching Dee pick her up & point at the lights as each color blinks & he tells her what each color is called. "b-b-b-blue Elsie. r-r-r-red Elsie. g-g-g-green Elsie" & she proceeds to point them out after him. All the while with raised eyebrows in complete awe. Oh & I love pointing out each ornament to her. SHE LOVES IT! She smiles at me & points & looks at me with raised eyebrows for conformation & shared excitement.
Another example.. She loves wrapping paper. haha Try wrapping a gift with a baby who is mobile around. It's a very hard task. haha Oh the list goes on.
I have tried to do things this season to make it a special one. Not really for Elsie.. but for me I guess since she won't remember a thing. I just want to make sure I start making traditions now so when the time comes where Elsie will remember things she will be looking forward to certain things.
Here is what we have been up to this season:
After our Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws we went to a movie.. Me, Dee, & Elsie. (I wouldn't recommend taking an active 9 month old to a movie.. even if it is a cartoon) & after the movie we put up our tree & decorated it.
Elsie met Santa at our ward Christmas party!
We had a gingerbread house making "contest" (it wasn't really a
contest.. we just decorated gingerbread houses. haha). with my Aunt
Susan, my cousins Lindsey, Spencer, Alex & his wife Ashlan, my
sister Megan, my brother-in-law Justin, & my niece/nephew Harper
& Ben.
We watched many Christmas movies.. I think Elsie's favorites were "White Christmas" & "The Little Tangerine Bear" (they were on Netflix) She wasn't very fond of the other ones we watched.
I finished Elsie's stocking. Man I love my little family!!
I made caramels & fudge like I have for the past 2 years.
We had a "Christmas" dinner at my Aunt Stephanie's on Sunday December 21 & did an White Elephant gift exchange. We got this cute decoration:
I read A Christmas Carol. I love books!
For our family home evening closest to Christmas, we watched Elf & we took Elsie to see the lights at the temple. (:
We went & looked at lights around a neighborhood on December 23.
Christmas Eve I made potato soup (kind of a tradition my family did growing up), we read the Christmas story in the Bible, watched Home Alone, & read a Christmas book: "The Night Before Christmas"
This morning we ate German pancakes, then we each opened one gift & after that we went over to my in-laws house around 1 & had Christmas dinner for lunch. When we got home around 5:30 Elsie & I took a 2 hour nap.. then we finished opening our gifts & headed over to Ihop for a late dinner. It has been a great day! We are so blessed!
The whole Santa thing.. I'm undecided on. Maybe I keep over thinking it or maybe I'm just crazy.. or both. Anyway I don't want to lie to my kids.. but I don't want to take away the spirit of Christmas. You know what I mean? What do you & your family do? Also if I do Santa I don't want to do it half.. well you know.. I mean obviously if one of my
future kids asked me if Santa was real or not.. I would tell them the truth. I don't want to prolong it. But I also want to explain to them that "I believe" so they don't think mama & daddy are liars. I want to do Santa gifts in different wrapping paper than the wrapping paper our family uses.. that is of course if we do the Santa thing.. but Dee thinks that's stupid. He said his family just used the same wrapping.. So I guess what I am getting at is I want some opinions & I want to know what you & your family do about Santa? I guess I just want everything to be perfect for my little family. & at least we have a year.. maybe 2.. to decide what we want to do! Thanks in advance!
Merry Christmas everyone!
That's all for now!
I never felt lied too as a kid. If anything it taught me to believe in something that I could not see from a young age. And things that you develop as a child seem to stick with you. My mom's friend had the same issue with it. She did not want to lie to her kids about the whole Santa thing and she never had her kids believe in Santa Clause. She has since said that she wished she had. To me its a memory of my childhood that I would not trade for anything. It allowed me a small moment of my life to believe in something magical and unbelievable in a world that stresses the importance of factual and realistic things. But that belief just added to the sense of awe of the season. But that awe was not only from the belief in Santa, but from the true meaning of Christmas as well. While I was growing up my mom stressed the importance of seeing Christmas as a way to celebrate and honor the birth of Christ. So because I was taught to believe in Santa, who is a perfect example of being giving, I was able to make a connection between the two. So when it came time for me to learn that Santa was not real I still strived to follow the giving example that Santa gave me as a child and then believe in the meaning of Santa instead. Both the birth of Christ and the giving nature of Santa Clause taught me to want to be giving as well. So Christmas to me has always been the season of giving.
ReplyDeleteMichellle, It is admirable that you don't want to lie to your children about Santa Claus. I told my kids when they asked if Santa Claus was real that "Santa is real as long as you believe in him." That seemed to satisfy them until they were old enough to truly understand. I think as a child we need to believe in magical things. When we get older we need to be able to tell the difference between fantasy and reality.
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