Sometimes I Write

What a series! We finished watching the first season on Tuesday night. Wednesday night Benny joked that he didn’t know what to do with himself now that we’d finished our LOST marathon. 🙂 There were so many twists and turns and it’s easy to be drawn into the character’s lives. What great writers! I can’t wait for the 2nd season to begin next Wednesday night. I’ll have to tape it because I’ll be picking my brother up from the airport.

Lennie is coming to spend 4 days with us to celebrate his and Max’s birthdays on the 22nd & 23rd. We ‘re all excited to see him, but none more than Max. He knows that Uncle Lennie is bringing him real martial arts weapons. (greeeeaaaat!) Lennie is spoiling Max so I reminded him that I also have a girl and her birthday is in two weeks. 🙂 He’s getting Zoe princess dresses and matching shoes. She’ll be so excited! Pete’s birthday is 4 days after Christmas. I’ll have to work extra hard to make it special for him. Birthdays are the most important day of the year for most children. It’s a day devoted to making them feel special and unique. What a celebration. It’s not an entitlement, but a gift. It’s also a good excuse to put our tree away the day after Christmas. We put it up on Thanksgiving, so it won’t be like we didn’t have enough time to enjoy it.

Speaking of Christmas…Have you started your planning yet?

Jennifer and I were talking yesterday about whether or not we “do Santa Claus”. We talked about how neither one of us wanted it to be just about the presents and how to change traditions up a bit so that isn’t the focus. I told her our three gift rule, each child gets three gifts from us, one big and two small, which we open on Christmas Eve as a family. Then on Christmas morning, they wake up to see what Santa brought them, a gift in front of the tree that is not wrapped. Sometimes this gift is from us, sometimes it’s from grandparents, but until our kids are old enough to know who “Santa” is, we’re not telling. My opinion on this matter has changed a lot over the years. I grew up not believing in Santa because my mom believed that we’d hate her for lying to us for all those years once we “found out”. We want our children to have fun with those Christmas traditions like leaving carrots for the reindeer and cookies and milk for a man who drives his sleigh around the world to bring happiness and joy to children everywhere. Our kids get to do that too, sort of. After all the gifts have been given and received, we each choose a gift we’ve received and we give it to someone at a hospital or shelter. It’s a tradition I hope my children will carry on once they have their own families. We also save our change and try to make sure we have some with us to drop in the red kettles that pop up around the holidays. This year we’re also going to give gifts that we can’t hand deliver, like a special gift to our Compassion family in Brazil, and money for our friends in MS as they rebuild after the hurricane. In order to do that, we have to plan for it now, and really all year long. It’s the stewardship thing.

I don’t worry about our kids focusing too much on the gifts. Who doesn’t get excited about receiving gifts? That’s not wrong, as a matter of fact, that’s one of my love languages. We do our best to teach them about giving, which is something we do all year long. I know from their generosity at their young ages that the lesson is sinking in. With society the way it is, we just have to be even more vocal about it around the holidays. This year we’ll have the unique opportunity to provide a gift for the many streetkids downtown. Our kids will love that.

It’s exciting for John & Jennifer to get their own traditions going this year now that they have Judah, who is so adorable. It’s interesting for me to see how my friends celebrate in their own ways and though we’re all so different, I think we all want the same things: to do something nice for someone else, for our kids to learn the art of giving, and for the holiday’s to be a magical time of the year.