I sat down in my chair to blog about excitement in the air. Today I took the boys to mail a package and a letter to Christian's brother, Abram, who is on an LDS mission to South Korea. The line was 15 people long. But we also had a package waiting for us at the post office, so we had to stand in line. We got a box yesterday too, via UPS, so now each kid has a giant box to play "racecars" with. I also attempted to put a present under the tree yesterday. BIG mistake. While I was on an important phone call in the other bedroom, Ethan ran in yelling, "Aidan is opening the present!!!" So I went into the living room and sure enough, Aidan is ripping the paper off of the present. So I'm glad I kept all of the other presents in the top of my closet. Also, with the advent calendar activities, we have something to do every day that is Christmas flavored. I'm really trying hard to also talk about the nativity, the true meaning of Christmas, and add a spiritual aspect to the Christmas season. It's not easy when stores are saturated with all things Christmasy/presents/elves/Santa. It has helped, unfortunately, to have sick kids for the last eight days, so we haven't been able to go to any stores. Are any of you finding the same things that I am, that it's hard to not focus on presents and Santa? Do any of you have thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks to Desta for the fabulous idea of the 12 days of (blogging) Christmas.
Do you like the partridge in the pear tree? And here is a picture of our family two years ago on Christmas Day.
3 people wanted to leave a comment:
We did our shopping after Thanksgiving and wrapped all the presents and put them in our closet so the kids don't see them. We also bought a couple books on christmas that are about Christ's birth. At our ward party tomorrow we are not having people sit on Santa's lap, rather he will quickly pass out candycanes during the dinner. It is hard to keep Santa out of it. I have also told Ryan that Santa is like our faith. It is something we believe in but it is more of a feeling and something we have to work at. We have been focusing on making goodies for others and serving others so that we can feel good. I did it more so that he won't believe santa is an actual person, more of a symbol of christmas.
We told our boys that any present they opened gets taken back to the store! And we have tried to center on Christ by doing kind things or showing love for each other. We have a wooden manger that we are filling with paper hearts so Baby Jesus will have a soft bed in our home. We used Elder Wirthlin's talk from conference to introduce the idea at the beginning of the month. They will do a lot to get to put a heart in the manger, even our crazy little Carter is excited about it. And every night we read a Christmas story or learn about the people who were their at Christ's birth.
I LOVE your 12 days of blogging - I think I would run out of things to say - other than talk about CRAZY So. Fla drivers - and anyone who ever thought Utah drivers were bad - ROFL!!!!!!
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