quilt for a cause

My friends over at Rooted in Love are raffling off a quilt. It is a beautiful quilt, and proceeds from the raffle will go to purchase Bibles in native language for nannies in Ethiopia. So click here to find out details about how to purchase raffle tickets and possibly win the quilt. But hurry! The deadline is tomorrow (December 17).

If you would like to donate anyway, Ashley and Jillian will accept donations up until they leave for Ethiopia (they are adopting two children there!).

More info here.

Good luck if you choose to purchase tickets! :)

*UPDATE* Ashley and Jillian extended the deadline through 4 p.m. tomorrow (December 18). So there's still time to let them know you want raffle tickets! Head on over to their site!

Santa Claus

Warning: this post contains the opinions of the writer. You may or may not agree with them. Read at your own risk.

It’s that time of year again. Advent is upon us. I LOVE the whole Christmas season. I love looking at lights and decorating the tree and opening presents and drinking cider and egg nog. I also love remembering God’s wondrous gift to us and singing songs of praise and doing my Advent Bible study. I love How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (the book and the original cartoon version, NOT the Jim Carrey movie) and the Charlie Brown Christmas special. I love trying to teach Sarah about Jesus and the true meaning of this wonderful holiday season.

I also love Santa Claus. There, I said it. I love Santa Claus! I think he’s fun. This time of year, a lot of blogs as well as church literature start spewing all the evils of commercialism and consumerism at Christmastime (I agree completely with that; those things are wrong). But poor Santa gets caught right in the middle of it as a symbol of greed and a distraction from what Christmas is all about.

If you find that Santa does inspire greed in you and that he indeed takes your focus from all that is holy and sacred about Christmas, by all means ignore him. Shun him. But please leave me alone to enjoy my Santa fun. I may indeed be less devout than you, but not necessarily because I like Santa and you don’t.

Let's face it; the overemphasis on commercialism at Christmas is a relatively recent trend. People didn't used to have fistfights and literally trample people to death over "stuff" in the stores. Since Santa has been around for quite a long time now, I don't think it's fair to blame him for all these recent atrocities.

When I was still teaching, one of the children had a mother who was very much anti-Santa. And she was eager to persuade the rest of us to her viewpoint as well. I remember she had one little boy in tears, telling him he needed to choose between Jesus and Santa Claus, because he couldn’t have both. And the poor little boy was miserable, because he did love Jesus, but he also really thought Santa was a lot of fun.

I do have my reasons for my Santa affections. :) First of all, I grew up with him. My mom is another big fan of the jolly old elf, so Santa was always a part of our Christmas traditions (we did the tooth fairy and Halloween too. Heathens all the way round, I know). It was exciting to wake up on Christmas morning and run to see what Santa had brought. I don’t even remember when I learned the “truth” about Santa, that he wasn’t really real. On some level, I think children always know or at least suspect that it’s all a giant game of make-believe. But what child doesn’t love to pretend? And there was never some big dramatic moment when I realized I’d been “lied” to.

And it was fun as a child to notice that the TV that Santa brought was from the same factory where my dad worked. Or that the note he left was on the same kind of paper that my mom used in the kitchen. I felt smart and smug as I observed these little “slips.” And it was really fun the year that roles reversed slightly. I noticed that my mom, brother, and I all had stockings and gifts from Santa, but my dad did not. This was horribly unfair. So I gathered up some candy I had and left it with a note from “Santa” (again on Mom’s paper) apologizing for having neglected him for so many years. And even though looking back on it, it was probably old Halloween candy full of artificial color that Dad couldn’t even eat, I was SO proud of myself for being his “Santa.”

I still think Santa is good, clean fun for kids. Today, many children are overbooked, overstimulated, stressed out, and strung out. They have very little time just to be kids. Santa Claus is a small way to allow them something fun and a chance to experience some childlike wonder.

But as an adult, my reasons for appreciating Santa have deepened a bit. We all give presents at Christmas. We give gifts to one another because God gave the ultimate gift to us. We show love and kindness to one another because of the love and kindness God has shown us. And Santa absolutely embodies that spirit of giving and kindness. He is a tangible example of generosity.

There are several versions of the legend of Santa Claus. I won’t even attempt to relate them all. I will simply tell my favorite one, which comes from a book I bought in college. Nicholas was a toy maker living in Amsterdam. His sales picked up around Christmas, of course, as parents bought presents for their children. But he noticed that the poor young orphans of the city got no presents at all. Because Nicholas was a compassionate man, this disturbed him. He made toys for all the orphans of the city and left them in secret, along with food and candy. The orphans were of course thrilled, and giving made Nicholas happy too. He continued to leave his secret presents each year, and as time went on he not only gave gift to the orphans and the impoverished but to all of the children of the city. And eventually he was giving gifts to all the children of the world, simply for the enjoyment it gave him. Is that not a perfect illustration of Jesus’ words, “It is more blessed to given than to receive”?

And when the focus on Santa takes a backseat to the focus on Jesus, he CAN be a delightful addition to the holiday celebrations. And most children do know the difference between the fun of Santa and the sacredness of Jesus. I don’t remember ever being confused or uncertain as to what the real meaning behind Christmas is. A book I read once demonstrates it perfectly. A small child was asked who was more important, Jesus or Santa. The child was right in the middle of enjoying Santa’s gifts at that particular moment, but she still responded with eloquence: “Jesus. Santa comes only at Christmas. Jesus came at Christmas too, but He stays with us all the time, in our hearts. Plus, Santa only brings presents if we’ve been good. Jesus loves us all the time, even if we forget to be good.” And one of the adults present in the story responded with, "Best sermon I've heard in a long time!" Children know what is real and what isn't, and what is important and what isn't.

Also, there are many traditions at Christmas that originally came from pagan practices. Yet no one protests Christmas trees and such. And no one complains at Easter when children dye eggs (not even the aforementioned mother who was trying to proselytize my kindergarten students against Santa!). So I honestly don't see why Santa has to be singled out for ridicule and revile.

So there it is, my Santa rant. You don’t have to celebrate or acknowledge Santa at all if you don’t wish to. It isn’t at all important, and I would not want to be guilty of talking someone into a practice they weren't comfortable with, or simply just didn't care about. I simply grow weary of all the “anti-Santa” railing and thought I’d offer the opposite perspective. And I wish you a very merry Christmas, with or without the jolly old elf!

like father, like daughter

I have posted previously about Sarah's excitement over a "Sarah-sized" laptop computer that Nelson brought home from work. She has continued to use it it off and on since then. She can boot it up herself, open the program she wants (usually the typing program or the Paint program where she can draw). When she's finished, she can close the program she's using and shut the computer down.

But Sarah has seen her daddy use his computer to play games (her mommy too--crosswords, Sudoku, and the like), and she decided today that she wanted to be able to play games too. So this was the scene when I walked into the living room earlier.





It was kind of a sweet moment, father and daughter bent over the computer, with Nelson very patiently teaching Sarah what to click in order to play the game correctly. I got warm fuzzies watching him share one of his loves with her. Perhaps this can grow into something of a shared hobby for the two of them. I wouldn't want Sarah to spend an inordinate amount of time playing computer games, but as active as she is I don't really see that happening. But it was neat watching a bonding moment between father and daughter as he taught her how to play. :)

walking in a winter wonderland...

We may not have any chestnuts roasting on an open fire, but Jack Frost is certainly nipping at our noses! Someone apparently told Old Man Winter that it was December, and that he'd been neglecting us the last several years. We've had cold weather and a few snow flurries already. Today it snowed for real. Not a huge snow, but enough to stick to the ground and the roads. We were behind a snow plow coming home from a birthday today, and I've heard a couple more drive by in front of the house this evening.


Sarah, of course, is thrilled. She has been eager for snow for awhile now. The last several nights, she has requested Ezra Jack Keats' book The Snowy Day as her bedtime story, and she has wanted a snowy day of her own. Plus, she has those boots she's been wanting to wear! She didn't have much snow to play with today, but she did get some, so she's happy. :)


Some photos of our wintry weather...


Sarah, all bundled up and ALWAYS ready to strike a pose...




Pretty...








Happy to be playing in the snow.




Making tracks...




Trying (not so successfully) to throw a snowball...

She just doesn't quite have the hang of that yet.

The back deck.

Back in the warm house, after a fun time outdoors...

funny quote...

No offense to my non-Southern readers, but this quote was too good to pass up. :)

"You can say whatever you want about the South, but you never see Southerners heading north when they retire."--Anonymous

So there! :)

Frosty the Snowman, Sarah-style

Sarah is definitely in Christmas mode. She asks every morning if it's Christmas yet. She LOVES looking at Christmas lights. And I've already mentioned that she has selected gifts for some people and that we've watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (She is looking forward to viewing the Charlie Brown special soon).

She is also frequently singing her own unique version of "Frosty the Snowman." She's got the tune pretty close to right, but her lyrics are a bit unusual! Try to imagine these words being sung to the "Frosty" music:

Frosty the Snowman,
he never, ever starts
but when he puts a carrot to his nose!

And she just sings those same lines, over and over again! :) Hilarious.

In other news, Sarah is still missing dear Ethan from Bible study. Our class doesn't start until Jan. 7, but she is still proclaiming, "When I grow up, I'm going to marry Ethan and he's going to love me forever!"

We went to watch Nelson's first basketball game for the church team tonight. Sarah has talked for weeks about wanting to go see the games, so she was really excited. And she did well throughout most of the game, clapping and cheering and saying, "Nice shot!" The last ten minutes or so of the game, she got tired and cranky and ready to go home. But overall, she really seemed to enjoy the experience of attending her first sporting event.

Little Baby Girl is moving around a lot today. She has been quite the active little thing! I think she must be having a party in there! ;)

Hopefully we will get the house decorated this week for Christmas and be able to post pictures (not to mention appease Sarah, who is begging for the Christmas tree). :) She needs a place to put all these presents she's bought, after all!

Sarah's Thanksgiving weekend

I've told you a bit about our weekend--mostly Sarah's adventures in shopping. But here are a few more tidbits from our Thanksgiving and afterward.



We went to my parents' for Thanksgiving dinner. Dad had bought a gingerbread kit for Sarah to build and decorate a gingerbread house after we ate. Sarah LOVED doing this! Here is a picture of her finished handiwork:

She has had a very good time eating the gingerbread house too. It's about halfway gone now. So it's a good thing Dad got a picture to preserve the project! ;)

On Saturday, we went to do a bit more Christmas shopping. I was shopping for a teenager, so we were in the Junior department at Kohl's. One of the skimpy shirts that is so in fashion these days caught Sarah's eye. Her comment? "That's too small!" What a good girl! ;)

We watched the cartoon version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! last night. Fun!

And since yesterday officially kicked off the Advent season, I wish you all a joyful and blessed time of celebration and reflection. :)