Christmas Shopping

Finally, I am done with Christmas shopping. What a nightmare! We spent waaay too much money this year on this jolly ol' holiday, lemme tell ya. Whew! Lemme say that again.

WHEW!!!

I'm almost done wrapping the last of the loot, and it's all sitting patiently underneath our be-decked tree in the living room. Yup, we have all our gifties out way before Christmas morning. Pretty much when we buy them and wrap them is when they go under the tree.

"But Becka," you say, "how do you keep your children from terrorizing the presents?"

My answer: "We tell them not to." *grins*

:P Seriously, I have good kids, and they understand that opening presents is for Christmas morning only. They also know Santa is only a fun story. While believing in Santa might be part of the "wonder" of Christmas, my husband and I have chosen to focus the point and "wonder" of Christmas away from Santa and the promise of gifties to the true meaning, the birth of the Son of God. :)

That's not to say my kids don't have fun "pretending" Santa is real, and they would never be "mean" and tell a kid who believed in him that Santa wasn't real. It was merely a decision DH and I had when we began having kids that we wouldn't "lie" to them. I remember how disappointed I was when I found out the truth that Santa wasn't real. We didn't want to disappoint our own kids in the same way.

So while they enjoy movies about Santa and seeing him in stores and on TV, they know it's just a "fun" story, like the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy.

Right now, my kids are enthralled with "God stories". They ate The Nativity Story for breakfast. LOL My seven-year-old has been pleading with us to let her watch The Passion of the Christ, but that won't be for another few years yet. That movie, while very poignant and powerful, is just a little too violent/scary/gory for a child her age.

But now that we have all the gifties under the tree, holiday music playing, and festive cookies all around, the countdown to Grandma begins!! Six more days!! I think the kids are more excited to see Grandma than Christmas morning, to be honest. LOL



~~Becka