Christmas Through the Eyes of Children

I have made a commitment to myself to do Christmas differently this year - more simply, more taking it in, enjoying every moment, breathing deeply. I want to enjoy the entire month of December, not just working like crazy to make everything perfect so that on Christmas Day I can be dog-tired and irritated that no one even notices my perfectionism or much less cares, which has been the case many times before.

"Perfect" is the enemy of "good". I keep telling myself that. I am striving to remove the word perfect from my life because no one is perfect except God. I want to enjoy life especially my kids and especially in this time of Christmas and at the tender ages of three and six.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, I took the kids into Reynoldsville to see Santa at the library. They listened to a story, made a craft, and then were on to talk to Santa. When Santa asked what they wanted for Christmas, Eliza replied with "a real camera". Okay. No problem, right? Then onto Eric, "and what do you want, little boy?" "A white gate" came the reply of my farm boy. Good 'ol Santa luckily never batted an eye and said, "okay, anything else?" Eric followed up with "a cow with a tail" after that, I think Santa gave up and just wished them a Merry Christmas!

A few days after our visit, Eliza said that she wanted to mail her letter to Santa. I was getting out the envelopes and getting the letters ready to mail, when Eric announced that he didn't see any need to send the letter to Santa. When I questioned him on it, he said "I already told him at the library what I wanted. I think that's good enough." Eliza decided that still wasn't good enough for her, so off her letter went to the North Pole.

To make sure that Santa wasn't overtaking our Christmas celebrations, I found devotions online to do with the kids for Advent. I had seen Advent calendars at Joann Fabrics a few weeks ago, but wasn't sure how to use them. So, we constructed an Advent wreath out of construction paper, toilet paper rolls for the candles and tissue paper flames.

I love how the Advent wreath can teach us so much about God's never ending love, His faithfulness, love, peace, and joy, and best of all - to keep Christ at the center of Christmas!