Monday, December 24, 2007

Christmas Flops and High Hopes

I have just spent about 3 days and countless hours pouring my creative heart and soul into a Christmas project that is not to be. Well, not by Christmas anyway. I will write more about it, but it was for my mother and father-in-law and it just isn't working out. They are VERY difficult to buy for, so I tried to come up with something homemade and technology has failed me - AGAIN - this month. The problem is I have no plan B for them. I have nothing else. I have not abandoned hope, but I have abandoned deadlines in the interest of ACTUALLY enjoying the next couple of days with my hubby and kids. Speaking of...

We do Santa. We know a lot of Christians that don't, and don't get me wrong, I totally understand why. It can completely cloud the vision of the TRUE meaning of Christmas if you are not careful. However, this Santa thing ROCKS!!!! Holy cow, the power of the naughty and nice list cannot be understood to non-Santa parents. I have gained more mileage over the last week with this than a hybrid Toyota. Also, the genuine, non-questioning, 100% belief in something SO illogical is truly something to cherish. I have been the one asking kids the hard questions to get them thinking and to hear their responses. Their answer is almost always, "because he's Santa." I love it. Gavin was terrified as soon as dusk was upon us this evening around 5:00 that he would fall out of favor with the jolly man in red, and Santa would bypass the house with the non-sleeping children. I had to get on NORAD.com and show Gavin the globe so he could see where Santa was and his projected path. The sheer impossibility of the entire concept hit me as I was doing this, and I realized Santa had 4 hours to cover the entire western 1/3 of South America, all of densely populated Latin America and the entire Eastern Time zone in the 5 or so hours until midnight. (According to NORAD, he was in Brazil at about 7:00) I LOVED Gavin more for just knowing it to be true and skipping off. We went outside in the dark in our slippers to look for red nosed reindeer and to listen for jingle bells as we do every Christmas Eve. We didn't find anything except the local airport's red blinking control tower light. My dental hygienist asked me the other day if I was looking forward to Santa's arrival. I said I haven't looked forward to Santa's arrival since I became Santa. Not true as I think about it. I LOVE being Santa, because I won't get to be him for much longer.

As we put the kids to be tonight and the excitement of Santa danced off every breath they took, I asked them why we celebrate Christmas. The VERY FIRST words out of each of their mouths was "Jesus!" Why do we give gifts? "Jesus' birthday." I think we can keep Santa around as long as we keep Jesus first.

KEEP BELIEVING

5 comments:

  1. I am at Mom and Dad's and had some time to sit and catch up with your blog. You guys never fail to crack me up! I can't wait to see you again! Hope you have a Merry Christmas! Oh, thanks for mailing the video camera back. It arrived Friday. I hope it worked well for you. Have a wonderful morning opening Santa's gifts. Tell everyone hi for me and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Love you all. Jen, Jake, and Mason

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  2. We are Santa belivers and Christians too. I think as ling as you keep it all in perspective you can have both. I am off to be Santa right now, I think the kids are finally asleep!!

    Christina

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  3. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas - ours was fabulous. Take care. Kellan

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  4. I had know idea about that Norad thing. I'll have to remember that for next year. John's sister's birthday is on Christmas, and when we asked the boys whose birthday it was, they said Aunt Judi and Jesus, and then sang Happy Birthday to both. We will keep Santa, too.

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  5. I'm right with you on this one. I explained to my 7 yr old girl this year that Santa believes in Jesus, too. We studied St. Nicholas, and where he was from (all of it historical) and I found a lot of comfort in that. He did serve Christ. I see nothing conflicting about it.

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