The season of Advent is upon us. But, really, who am I kidding. Our tree is up, our house is festively decorated (I even bought a tablecloth!), and Matt's been building some fantastic fires in the evenings. It's Christmastime, folks. And, the boys are getting the spirit. And by spirit, I mean "of receiving."
To be honest, we put a lot of emphasis on these wrapped things under the tree, and J - generous soul that he is - keeps wrapping up things at home and at school to put under the tree for Mommy and Daddy. I don't think Cooper has registered on his mental list of people to please, but he's getting it.
I'm not sure if this is pure generosity, or more of a works-righteousness philosophy, because J keeps asking to go to Target to pick out presents. Despite all of our theologically-correct efforts to tell them that Christmas is about Jesus rather than Santa, that's all been blown out of the water.
Last year, on Christmas morning, the president of the seminary and her husband showed up at our house (with our permission, of course). He was dressed as Santa. She was dressed as an "elf" with reindeer antlers. It didn't matter that they drove there in an burgundy Toyota Camry. What mattered was that the REAL LIVE SANTA showed up to give my children an awesome fire truck on Christmas morning.
I just can't tell them that wasn't real. Because it was. Totally and completely real.
The problem is that the president has since moved to Texas to take another job, and I'm thinking that this duty is not in the current president's job description. So, we're left with very high expectations and no plan except some lame excuses about why Santa didn't drive up to our house and bring a rockin' toy.
We've toyed with bribing other adults to show up in costume, toting a nice set of blocks. But, that seems to take the magic out of it for us, as well. The beauty was that none of us had any expectations around this event. Christmas had gone just splendidly, and we were cleaning up wrapping paper and readying ourselves for some hard-core gift exploring. When all of a sudden, there was a knock on our door.
It's funny how little it takes to shift someone's world. For 11 1/2 months now, the boys have kept this memory close to their hearts; Santa came, they saw Santa, and the mystery was conquered.
So what do we do this year?
3 comments:
Can you tell them that Santa's magical ability to get to everyone while they are asleep is special and still requires running around very fast, while visits during the day take more time. And then explain that Santa can't visit every place during the day, so he picks a city and visits there? Last year was Decatur, this year it is somewhere else? Like Texas or New York or where ever?
Samira
love that santa picture where did you guys get that done....
年少輕狂丫..................................................
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