It's Christmas time again...

So, here it is November 26 and we decided to put up our Christmas tree and decorations today. We always have so much fun doing this. The kids helped us trim the tree and after all the lights were put up they were the ones to turn them on. They got so excited about making the tree look "pretty". My husband on the other hand got excited about his new Bing Crosby Christmas CD and very, very excited about the mistletoe. Christmas time excitement for some reason always makes him a little "randy baby". Anyway, Christmas time for me is a time of reflection. I remember Christmas when I was a child with fondness. The greatest thing for me then was being together with all our family. As a young adult I loved watching the excitement in my niece and nephew. Now, although I really love seeing my children's reaction to store displays, toys, presents, Christmas trees and other novelties, my greatest joy is sharing with them the story of the birth of our Lord. I love reading from Matthew or Luke on Christmas day with them. I love making a "birthday cake" for Jesus and having the kids sing Happy Birthday to Him. I love that my daughter is excited about being apart of our church's Christmas Eve service. I don't remember as a child really focusing that much on God - more commercialism really. We were really into Santa but our kids think (at our doing) that Santa is just a nice guy who likes to give more than receive and that he gives in the tradition of gifts being given to the Christ child at His birth. All of the kids gifts are from us but one. They each get one from Santa. It's hard when at daycare and school the focus is all on Santa but they do very well I think. If you ask Ceilidh who Jesus is she replies "God's son - he died for us". Noah always says to never fear "God will always protect us". " What is the true meaning of Christmas kids?" "We celebrate Jesus' birthday". I love hearing that from them. Anyway, tonight after the kids go to bed, Brad and I will watch the hockey game and then off to bed. Tomorrow we will probably watch a Christmas Story - which is a great movie about a young boy's memorable Christmas one year. I love that movie because it shows me that my past Christmases were never as messed up as this kids and that makes me feel all warm inside. Merry Christmas :-) M.