Santa

I started working on this post a few weeks ago, and even though Christmas has come (and gone!) I still want to post it. I often get asked, and ask others about their beliefs around Santa - as in, who is he to your family, do you incorporate him into your celebrations, and if so, how? Some of my friends celebrate the Christian Christmas, and some celebrate Christmas as a time to spend with friends and family, and give to others. Santa brings one of my friend's kids only handmade toys (wooden toys, puzzles, handmade clothes, a la elf workshop stuff!), another friend only gets family toys from Santa (board games, or movies for them to watch together).

For my family, we're still working on the balance between Santa and Jesus, and I know I've mentioned it before, but I love the book Santa's Favorite Story for that. For us, it's not either Santa or Jesus, but we're trying to find how Santa can compliment the spiritual meaning of the holiday. We definitely "do" Santa in this house - I love the mystery and fun of it. Santa has his own wrapping paper, special tags, and hand-writing. And with the added fun of Emma this year, there is NO doubt in Princess's mind that he's real. And I love that. I have always had a big imagination and I loved playing pretend growing up (I still daydream all. the. time... Ask my husband) and I love playing into my kids' imaginations now.

Obviously in all this we try to not put focus on the materialism the season can bring - we definitely can get overboard on the gifts, but we also give to charity and donate items as well, and talk to the kids about how lucky we are to have so much, and how some kids don't have all that we do. We're big on the family time, and gifts we can all enjoy together - this year Santa got Princess and Tobes one toy each, and then a couple of joint gifts (a shopping cart from Melissa and Doug, and walkie-talkies!) and then the family got a couple of board games. I also don't really like the "naughty or nice" about Santa. I don't think a gift should be based on behavior. Obviously I want my children to behave well and be polite, but if I want to give someone a gift, it's because I love them, not because of anything they've done to deserve it. Rewards are for behavior, gifts are for relationships. God didn't give us Jesus because we were super-awesome, it was because He loves us. We love our children, and so we want to give them gifts, so it's kind of weird to think of a man my children meet once a year (for photo opportunity) getting all the credit for all the gifts on Christmas morning. I'd rather them think that I'm the incredible mastermind behind the perfect present ;)
 
Those are my thoughts on the man in red, and now I pose the question to you - how does your family handle Santa?

Merry Christmas

29

Today I turn 29. One year from today, I will be 30 (which is apparently also the end of the world, or at least the end of the Mayan calendar. I am going to have one INSANE "It's the End of the World As We Know It, and Erie's 30!" party, but that's another conversation altogether). (Seriously though, it's going to be awesome).

I had goals for my younger 20's - when I wanted to graduate university, when I wanted to have a career, when I wanted to be married by, when I wanted to have kids, etc. But I never had "goals"/markers/whatever past the age of 25... It's a new stage of my life. I am married (coming up on 7 years!) I have the house of my dreams to raise my babies in, and on that note, I am done having babies! Now is a time to start looking beyond and setting bigger goals. I want to make a name for myself in my industry, and I want to be successful in my upcoming business ventures, and seeds are being sewn. I want to be a dance mom for Princess, and a soccer mom for Tobes (or hockey, except the idea of 4am rink times scares the crap out of me!) I want to be the best mom for both of them I can be. I want to be an amazing wife for my husband, and I want to keep growing and nurturing the amazing friendships I've made throughout my life.

I can't believe I'm already 29. Not that it's old, but I don't feel old enough to be 29, and yet chronologically, I guess it must be so. I look around me and am proud of the life I have cultivated, and the woman I have become. And I can't wait to see what the last year of my 20's shapes up to be!

Happy Birthday to Meee!

Guest Blogger Again!

It's that time again, folks! Time for my guest blogger. Princess has been begging me to let her "write" on my blog for awhile now ;)

So, without further delay, Princess!

***

P: "Hi Blog-people!"

Me: "Would you like to introduce yourself?"

P: "My name is *insert real name* and I'm 4 years old!"

Me: "Are you excited for Christmas?"

P: "Yeah!"

Me: "What are you most excited for?"

P: "Santa to bring me toys! That's what I'm excited of. And for Uncle J to get here! He's going to sleep in my room under my bed!"

**I should stop and make note here that Uncle J is my brother, who is coming in from Victoria and staying with us. Princess has a loft bed, so when she has sleep-overs (usually with Grammie), the sleep-over-ee is able to comfortably sleep under her bed. We're not talking about 6 inches of clearance or anything... But J is actually going to sleep on our pull-out couch...**

Me: "Do you know why we celebrate Christmas?"

P: "It's Jesus's birthday!! We don't see God and Jesus though. I have a book about Jesus and God. It's yellow."

Me: "If we can't see them, can we still talk to Jesus and God?"

P: "Yeah. We pray to them, and that's like talking to them. In my book Jesus has black hair. I like his hair."

Me: "So we celebrate Jesus's birthday on Christmas?"

P: "Yup! God sent him here so we would have peace."

Me: "What else would you like to say about Christmas?"

P: "Christmas is about giving. Like giving presents. God gave us Jesus when he was born. Do you think he would have been a cute baby, mommy?"

Me: "I think so."

P: "Can I tell your blog-people Merry Christmas?"

Me: "Sure! That would be nice!"

P: "Merry Christmas!!... Can I go play again?"

Me: "Sounds good, sweetheart."

***

Meet Emma

Wednesday night we had a visitor in our home. Emma the Elf on the Shelf joined our family for the Christmas season :) She's been here for 2 nights so far, and the kids are having a blast hunting her down and seeing what she's been up to in the night.

Emma herself. We thought we'd place her on the hearth - a good place for her to sit and listen to the goings-on around our house...

But one night here, and already she decided to change the place around! Thursday morning we found her in Princess' room with a brand-new nightlight that shines snowflakes on the ceiling...

We placed her back in her spot that day, but this morning we found that she had gathered up some of Princess's dolls for a party - complete with empty candy wrappers...

Saucy elf!

And in Emma's place? Another one of P's dolls!

 

I think my favorite part is all the places for her to hide, and the shenanigans she'll try. I'm also thankful for Pinterest, and my fellow elfing pals to bounce ideas off of ;) We're not using her as some are - I've read so many places where the elf is used as a ploy to help kids behave. Let's face it - I have a 4 year old and an 18-month-old. I'm 1) not withholding gifts if my children don't "behave" (I'm too excited to give them, and realistically while I expect a certain level of behavior, my children are mostly on par with that but punishing them at Christmas isn't going to help) and 2) we have a different view about Santa anyway... Which probably deserves it's own blog post. I have so many of those half-written in my cue right now...

Anyway, welcome to the family, Emma! We're excited to host you for the next 23 days!