I love Santa! ... and some thoughts

I have heard from many friends that they are so against Santa because they say he takes away from having a Christlike Christmas. I never felt that was the case and just thinking about banishing Santa so my kids can only think of Christ made me sad. Why not have both? Sure, everything is so commercial now but I think the fun of it comes from trying to make the holiday special and non commercial; thinking up ways to avoid falling in the I WANT this and that and instead of thinking of the importance of what this holiday actually celebrates. I most definitely don't want to spoil my kids rotten and will do all in my power to live and have a Christmas with meaning.  I hope to teach them about being giving and sweet and most importantly celebrating Jesus's birth, the most important gift God gave us all.
Santa is a not a bad thing. Maybe there are people that don't believe in anything and just do Santa because that's better than doing nothing but having both didn't ever hurt anyone. (in my humble opinion of course)
Recently as I was thinking about this a friend wrote this post.
I think it's worth a read and she beautifully wrote what I too think. I am going to use her letter when it's time later on for my own kids.
I want to hear my kids' thoughts on this magical person, I want to see their excitement, I want them to live the magic. I know that in a year or two my kids will talk about staying up to catch Santa and I can't wait to hear their conversations on the subject.  If you think about it kids don't believe in Santa that long anyway so why take it away from them?  I think they will learn and understand more about Jesus when they are older.

Isn't this Santa so cute? He grows out his beard and plays Santa beautifully. He comes to our church for all the kids to see him and have their picture taken with him. I just love how Dacian was so serious about showing Santa what he wanted. I love that I captured both of them looking at the magazine. Cute!

And now shifting gears a little; a few thoughts on this special season. I am starting to stop stressing over the holidays. I always stress this time of year and I have in years past dreaded Christmas. Why? Because it became a chore, expensive, too rushed of a holiday. But as I pause to think about what we are celebrating little by little the stress dissipates and the joy comes back.
I wish we all take time to slow down and think about Christ, think about how he is the perfect example of a humble and loving person and how as son of God he was born in the most uncomfortable of places.
This season my heart turns to my best friend who lost her mom and aunt within a month of each other, who is going through a rough time and I hope that because of her belief in God she will feel comforted and most importantly feel loved. I sure do love her dearly.
Last Christmas we were not doing very well financially that I was wondering if I could afford even a nice meal for our family. Of course I didn't tell anyone about this and we did manage to have a nice, quiet evening with some good (bought well in advance thank Goodness) turkey and potatoes and more. I wasn't very happy I have to admit, mostly because I had lost perspective of what was important here; I was being jealous of what others might have had, or what great food they must've had etc. (food is one thing that makes me happy in life and I don't know how to change that since I seriously need to lose weight) Silly but that's how I felt and now I feel bad that I wasn't happier because truly life wasn't that bad. I was ungrateful but hopefully that was a lesson learned. Surely other people with less knew how to be happier, they had a much better perspective than mine was.
But seriously what I went through is nothing in comparison to what others go through. I have so much more than I truly need. This year we are doing better financially and I hope I can make someone else happier a little. Thinking more about Christ I feel so much less concerned about me and more about others.
 I read in a book recently how one family "adopted" another less fortunate one and involved their own  kids in the shopping of presents. This helped the family focus on someone else, brought them joy to think of this family they were buying for. The kids in the family also learned a lot from this experience and the focus moved to this poor family, to loving them and thinking of others more than about their own wishes.  This more unfortunate family truly was happy to receive ANYTHING. They were so grateful. The little girl in the family brought the man who gave her the fun gifts to her room to show him the tree she had in her room. She told him with delight in her voice to come look at her beautiful tree. Guess what it was? It was a string of green lights taped to the wall in the form of a tree. She was so happy and to her that was more than enough. So I sat there reading that and the waterworks came.
I want to raise kids who are grateful (a little hard to do it; seems the world revolves around them-pretty typical for their ages but I hope they don't remain like that), kind, giving, and loving. I cannot wait until they grow a little older so I can take them out shopping for others too.

(the "Santa" had a fun gathering at his house the day he lit up all the lights. It was so fun to go there and kind of have him all to ourselves since we arrived later after most people had left. This family is just so fun and amazing. We used to be in the same ward a few years back. Everything was decorated with pretty lights and he had cookies and hot drinks for everyone, they sang and the gave out some Christmas movies and had the missionaries there. Fun event for the neighbors too. I guess they do this every year. What a fun tradition!)

Well, it's pretty late so enough of my thoughts for now.
Much love,
Maddy