I've been noticing that it seems to be a "must" in the blogging/facebook communities to post pictures of "the goods" one gets on Christmas, with a closeup of gleeful grins and the gift that brought all those teeth to the surface.
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I didn't even think to take pictures of the four presents we opened on Christmas morning (all of which were joint/shared gifts). I was too busy wondering if we should be giving gifts at all on Christmas. You see, I had just finished reading a Christmas book to my children called "Santa's favorite story", where Santa has to explain that Christmas isn't about him. Of course, at the end of the story, he goes ahead and gives out presents to all the animals in the forest anyway . . . can we say mixed message?!
Back on December 5, I was preparing for St. Nicolas Day. (For more information on this wonderful saint, go here www.stnicholascenter.com) For the second year in a row, our kids have delighted in placing their shoes ourside their door, stuffed with carrots for St. Nicholas' white horse. Then hubby and I exchange the carrots for little chocolate coins (also a legend of St. Nicolas) and other small treats. The kids wake up in the morning super excited about a handful of armymen strategically guarding their doorway, and the sweets. They didn't need an atare (or wait, is it gamebox, xbox 360, wii . . .i can't keep up!) They were happy with this modest surprise. And, of course, so were we! We began the day at church. The rest of the day we read stories about the real St. Nicholas and colored pictures of him, while enjoying our chocoate.
Next year, I plan to add the element of baking cookies together for our neighbors enclosing a special message about the real St. Nicholas, and writing a list together with the children of kind things we can do for others (ie: not things we want to get from santa, but things we want to give in honor of St. Nicholas). We will then work on this list leading up to Christmas. I deeply hope the addition of these two elements will guide us deeper into the Nativity season with more awareness of "the reason for the season." Who knows, we may end up changing our official Christmas gift-giving to this day altogether.
You see, St. Nicholas is really from whom the gift-giving was inspired. Over time, and in Puritanical America where saints lost their status, the traditions of St. Nicolas Day were merged into those of Christmas. Alas the wonderfully generous, God-fearing Bishop Nicholas became the jolly secular marketing genius Santa.
Anyway, back to my original post . . . Even though I am not a big fan of the materialized version of Christmas, I don't want to come across as a "Scrooge". I do afterall like to receive gifts as much as the next blogger. So, I thought I'd post a short list in honor of the most thoughtful gifts we received during this season.
1. hand made dolls. Ben's sister Bethany laboured to make these beautiful hand-crafted dolls for my girls. She put so much love and personality into them; may she know they have received just as much love and personality in return.
2. paint. It's been over 6 years, and our bedroom hasn't seen a lick of paint to grace those horribly dingy walls. Thanks to my husband's thoughtfulness, and my brother's skill, we now have delicious buttercream bedroom walls.
3. geo cashing. We love "doing" gifts the whole family can enjoy. Not only did we have to use our GPS to hunt down our gift hidden in the woods, we also got to redeem tickets to the Dallas World Aquarium. This was a special treat and a great learning adventure for all of us. Thanks Tim and Karina!
So, I had no intention of posting pictures of gleeful getters on my blog, but it seems I've been won over by the masses, and just had to take a photo today of my favorite gift Eden received (from grandma); a real vaccuum! I imagine I don't need to explain why I am so excited about it!
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