Life Lately

Things have been pretty crazy for our family lately. Our time home is filled with preparing for our move to New Orleans which will happen 11 days from now. That coupled with sorry internet service has resulted in my lack of blogging lately. Nonetheless, I wanted to give a quick update on what's going around here.

Paul worked his last day at the Sumter Chick-fil-a today. Although he will still be working for Chick-fil-a in NOLA, he was very glad to be done. I am glad that he won't have an hour commute one way to and from work each day although city traffic will now be an issue in his commute.

We are living amongst towers of boxes. Packing, getting the house clean, doing laundry, and keeping the kids alive is how I spend my days. The house is becoming less of a home as more and more of our stuff is packed up in boxes. There are so many feelings flooding my mind...excitement, fear, saddness, happiness. I can't wait to see what are apartment looks like. All I have seen of it is the outside and some floor plans.

We have talked with Parker a lot about our move. I'm not to sure how he is going to handle this, but he already has staked his claim that this is his house. He doesn't like the idea that someone else could be living here and we will be living in a new house. He is excited about the playground that will be outside of his new home. We have caught him peeing in places like the trash cans and the bath tub instead of the toilet. We think it could be related to anxiety about moving. My sister said he is just marking his territory. Haha!

Ellis is thrilled about all the boxes she can climb on. I thought Parker was bad about climbing, but Ellis is worse. Since she is still so young, she doesn't really have any clue as to what is going on.

We have been getting ready for Christmas. The presents are bought and wrapped. We've talked about the first Christmas over and over again while looking at our Nativity scene. We've celebrated with our family and friends at church celebration and have discussed our family Christmas plans. In our family, we decided to not do the whole Santa Claus thing, and we also only give our children only 3 gifts. It makes Christmas so much simpler and helps keep the focus on Jesus. Parker has asked me so many times, "Is it Jesus birfday yet?"

It's getting late some I'm going to end our little update. I'm hoping to get a chance to blog some more. Merry Christmas, y'all!

Pancakes

We have a tradition in our house to make pancakes for breakfast with a candle for the birthday person. This year we will be at our house on Christmas morning for the first time, so we decided to make pancakes for Jesus's birthday and Parker will get to blow out the candle for Jesus. This morning I was making pancakes for breakfast and we had the following conversation.

Parker: (running into the kitchen) It's Christmas! We eat pancakes for Jesus birthday.
Me: No, buddy, it's not Christmas quite yet. We are just having pancakes for breakfast just because.
Parker: I like pancakes.
Me: I know you do. They are your favorite breakfast food.
Parker: Jesus like pancakes too
Me: I'm sure he does.

Parker is so excited about celebrating Jesus's birthday. He keeps asking me if it is Jesus' birthday yet and telling me that Jesus likes pancakes on his birthday. Although he is looking forward to opening presents on Christmas, it just makes me so proud that he is just as excited about Jesus's birthday.

Simple Christmas

As a disciple of Jesus Christ, celebrating the birth of my Savior is one of the most exciting times of the year.  However, for many Christians, and for non-believers as well, Christmas tends to be a stressful time of year. I am determined that not be true for our family. The American Dream has stolen the joy of celebrating the miraculous birth of our Savior who laid aside his rights as God and became flesh in order to provide the way for salvation to a helpless and hopeless, fallen world. It makes me mad how Christians get mad over stores selling "Holiday trees" or only saying "Happy Holidays," but they are no different from the rest of the world in their Christmas celebrations except for the fact that the post "I'm keeping Christ in CHRISTmas" to their facebook statuses.
Through what God has been teaching me, there were somethings I wanted to change about our Christmas celebrations this year.
1. Celebrate Advent. I'm not talking about the kind where you open a little box or envelope and get some piece of candy or other trinket. I'm talking about the kind where you emphasize the "coming" (which is what Advent means) of the Savior both in flesh as a little baby and His triumpant return. I'm a little behind on this one. I want to create a banner with an envelope for each letter of "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus" (I know that it is 25 letters, but one extra won't hurt.) I'm going to put a verse with a special corresponding activity for each envelope.
2. Cut down on the gift giving. I just feel guilty getting more stuff when I already have so much, and all the people to whom I would give gifts are in the same boat. Let's face it. Even most of the poor in America have way more than we really need.  Our family decided that we would only get gifts for the children and use the money we would have spent on ourselves to bless those who are in need.

We are doing this in addition to some of the things we are already doing like we give only 3 gifts to our children. We don't do the whole Santa thing. (To read more about this, read last year's post )
With all this, Christmas feels a lot more simple, more real, more pure. I know there is more we can do to focus our minds are the truth of Christmas, so I'll just keep praying that the Lord continue to make the changes in me that He needs to in order to do that.

The Truth about Santa Clause

So sorry this is long but I do hope you will take the time to read it. Before even having children, Paul and I made the decision that we wouldn't do the whole "Santa Clause thing" with our children. We want our children to focus more on the truth of Christmas than what Santa's going to bring them. Also, we don't want to lie to our children. Besides, I don't want an imaginary, magic man getting credit for the gifts that we will get for our children.We don't look down on people who do the "Santa Clause thing" with their children. Our children will certainly be allowed to participate and enjoy the fantasy of Santa Clause, i.e. sitting on his lap for a picture, reading stories, and watching movies about him. However, they will know that it is a fantasy. Paul and I haven't announced this publicly, but as it has come up in conversation, we have told people what we are going to do. It kind of shocks me that the typical response in some form or fashion is, "you're going to ruin his Christmas" or "you're going to take the fun out of Christmas." It may not be said in those exact words, but I get what they really mean. It saddens me that Christmas has become all about us and the presents we will get. We will throw in a reading of the Christmas story from the Bible somewhere in our celebrations in order to appease God and "celebrate" the birth of His Son. Why is it that one of the first questions we ask children during the Christmas season is, "what is Santa going to bring you?". Why not instead ask, "what are you doing to celebrate Christ's birth this year?" I'm sorry to get on my soapbox here, but I wanted to share this after I read an article by Mark Driscoll about what we tell our kids about Santa Clause that someone else posted on their blog. Here is the article orignally posted in the Washington Post : What we tell our kids about Santa 'Tis the season . . . for parents to decide if they will tell the truth about Santa. When it comes to cultural issues like Santa, Christians have three options: (1) we can reject it, (2) we can receive it, or (3) we can redeem it. Since Santa is so pervasive in our culture, it is nearly impossible to simply reject Santa as part of our annual cultural landscape. Still, as parents we don't feel we can simply receive the entire story of Santa because there is a lot of myth built on top of a true story. Redeeming Santa So, as the parents of five children, Grace and I have taken the third position to redeem Santa. We tell our kids that he was a real person who did live a long time ago. We also explain how people dress up as Santa and pretend to be him for fun, kind of like how young children like to dress up as pirates, princesses, superheroes, and a host of other people, real and imaginary. We explain how, in addition to the actual story of Santa, a lot of other stories have been added (e.g., flying reindeer, living in the North Pole, delivering presents to every child in one night) so that Santa is a combination of true and make-believe stories. We do not, however, demonize Santa. Dressing up, having fun, and using the imagination God gave can be an act of holy worship and is something that, frankly, a lot of adults need to learn from children. What we are concerned about, though, is lying to our children. We teach them that they can always trust us because we will tell them the truth and not lie to them. Conversely, we ask that they be honest with us and never lie. Since we also teach our children that Jesus is a real person who did perform real miracles, our fear is that if we teach them fanciful, make-believe stories as truth, it could erode confidence in our truthfulness where it really matters. So, we distinguish between lies, secrets, surprises, and pretend for our kids. We ask them not to tell lies or keep secrets, but do teach them that some surprises (like gift-giving) and pretending (like dressing up) can be fun and should be encouraged. We tell them the truth and encourage them to have fun watching Christmas shows on television and even sitting on Santa's lap for a holiday photo if they so desire. For parents of younger children wanting them to learn the real story of Santa Claus the Veggie Tales movie Saint Nicholas is a good choice. The Truth about Santa Claus The larger-than-life myths surrounding Santa Claus actually emanate from the very real person of Saint Nicholas. It is difficult to know the exact details of his life with certainty, as the ancient records are sparse, but the various pieces can be put together as a mosaic of his life. A Gift-Giver Nicholas was born in the third century in Patara, a village in what is now Turkey. He was born into an affluent family, but his parents died tragically when he was quite young. His parents had raised him to be a devout Christian, which led him to spend his great inheritance on helping the poor, especially children. He was known to frequently give gifts to children, sometimes even hanging socks filled with treats and presents. Perhaps his most famous act of kindness was helping three sisters. Because their family was too poor to pay for their wedding dowry, three young Christian women were facing a life of prostitution until Nicholas paid their dowry, thereby saving them from a horrible life of sexual slavery. A Bishop and Saint Nicholas grew to be a well-loved Christian leader and was eventually voted the Bishop of Myra, a port city that the apostle Paul had previously visited (Acts 27:5-6). Nicholas reportedly also traveled to the legendary Council of Nicaea, where he helped defend the deity of Jesus Christ in A.D. 325. Following his death on December 6, 343, he was canonized as a saint. The anniversary of his death became the St. Nicholas holiday when gifts were given in his memory. He remained a very popular saint among Catholic and Orthodox Christians, with some two thousand churches named after him. The holiday in his honor eventually merged with Christmas, since they were celebrated within weeks of one another. Misnomer During the Reformation, however, Nicholas fell out of favor with Protestants, who did not approve of canonizing certain people as saints and venerating them with holidays. His holiday was not celebrated in any Protestant country except Holland, where his legend as Sinterklass lived on. In Germany, Martin Luther replaced him with the Christ child as the object of holiday celebration, or, in German, Christkindl. Over time, the celebration of the Christ child was simply pronounced Kris Kringle and oddly became just another name for Santa Claus. Folklore The legends about Santa Claus are most likely a compilation of other folklore. For example, there was a myth in Nicholas' day that a demon was entering people's homes to terrorize children and that Nicholas cast it out of a home. This myth may explain why it was eventually believed that he came down people's chimneys. Also, there was a Siberian myth (near the North Pole) that a holy man, or shaman, entered people's homes through their chimneys to leave them mushrooms as gifts. According to the legend, he would hang them in front of the fire to dry. Reindeer would reportedly eat them and become intoxicated. This may have started the myth that the reindeer could fly, as it was believed that the shaman could also fly. This myth may have merged with the Santa Claus myth, and if so, explains him traveling from the North Pole to slide down chimneys and leave presents on fireplace mantles before flying away with reindeer. These stories of Santa Claus were first brought to America by Dutch immigrants. In the early twentieth century, stores began having Santa Claus present for children during the Christmas season. Children also began sending letters to the North Pole as the legends surrounding an otherwise simple Christian man grew. In sum, Saint Nick was a wonderful man who loved and served Jesus faithfully. So, we gladly include him in our Christmas traditions to remind us of what it looks like for someone to live a life of devotion to Jesus as God. Our kids thank us for being both honest and fun, which we think is what Jesus wants. My family is choosing to redeem Santa Clause and focusing on the birth of our Savior and how St. Nicholas exemplified Christ through his gifts of charity. My point is not for you to do exactly as we are doing, although that would be fine if you did or didn't. I just want you to think. Merry Christmas!

FYI: Shutterfly Cards

So, I'm dissapointed to tell you that I'm not going to be getting 50 free Christmas cards from Shutterfly. I did what I was supposed to do and was told I would get a promo code email in 3-5 business days, and I never did. Maybe my blog post wasn't good enough to qualify. This makes me sad because I really like the Christmas card designs by Shutterfly, but money's tight and I can't afford a bunch of cards from them. But, I'm excited to tell you that I still got a really great deal on Christmas cards. I got 60 Christmas cards for $5.29 including tax and free overnight shipping! I think that's a pretty good deal. They are not as pretty as Shutterfly cards, but a SAHM's gotta do what a SAHM's gotta do. I found out about this deal using southernsavers.com. The website told me of a deal from seehere.com. You can also get 50 free prints of any pictures from snapfish. Even though my cards won't be as pretty as I hoped, I did my best to save my family some money. Now, my Christmas cards should be out on time (as long as do good to mail them out when they get here), and by on time, I mean before Christmas.