christmas: the second part

we were in knoxville this past weekend and celebrated christmas with my family. caleb spent saturday and most of the day sunday hanging out with gran and grandad. he also managed to get in some good play time with uncle adam. they were up to the usual little boy stuff of making loud noises...and playing with a vinegar bottle? not sure what that was all about, but they had fun. we opened gifts on sunday evening and caleb seemed to like all of his gifts, playing with each one after he opened it. he got some pretty cool stuff, but nothing compared to the tissue paper. he loved it! i only have a couple of pictures to post. my memory card was full...guess i'll learn to delete old pictures before next christmas, huh? when i get some more from gran, i'll post. one pic is of caleb and the tissue paper and the other is caleb enjoying his mickey mouse that uncle adam got him at disney world.

christmas: the first part

tom's family joined us for christmas eve and christmas day...and of course, they came bearing gifts. most of them for caleb, including his now favorite toy, the ride and walk lion. i have to admit, it's really cute to watch him push it around, and around, and around the house. it's even cute when he pushes its nose and it sings and growls over, and over, and over again. hopefully, with all this repetition he will be walking soon! other than caleb and his lion, i think i managed to snag the best gift of the day. tom got me a new ipod nano!

santa or no santa?

i read something recently that really got me going. it was a blog featured on the website saidatsouthern.com giving reasons why not to include satan, or santa (blogger's words) in one's christmas celebration. the blogger's argument centered around the dangers of the God-like qualities which we attribute to santa, including omniscience ("he knows when you've been bad or good..."), omnipresence (visits all the children in 1 night), and giving rewards for good behavior (which is not an accurate attribute of God, but many believe He operates this way). i agree that it is very dangerous to make santa into a god-like figure and that the vast majority of families place too much emphasis on santa and his gifts. however, do we have to? do we, as christians, have to make the choice between santa all the way, or no santa at all for our families? why can't we have both? while our santa claus may be a far cry from the original st. nicholas and his acts, why not reclaim that spirit of giving and pass it onto our children? tom and i believe that santa can be a pedagogical tool. while children are very young, let them experience the sheer joy of receiving gifts simply because they are loved. as their intellect matures, so too should their understanding of giving--i reference paul in 1 corinthians 13:11. they do not give to get, or as a trade-off for good behavior, but because they are beginning to desire to love others sacrificially; gifts being one expression of that love. children's interest, and belief, in santa will naturally wane with time, but the desire to give and serve can mature if parents will foster it all year round. i am not naive enough to believe that if parents let their children believe in santa claus they will all turn out to be good, kind, and love God...but, i do believe that if parents seize every opportunity to point their children to God and to His ways, that it will not be in vain. that's why i don't get worked up about setting out cookies for santa and then reading our christmas story before bed on christmas eve. tom and i will make many mistakes while raising caleb, but taking opportunities to discuss God and Jesus with him will not be included among them...just in case santa is checking his list! ;)

a tale of two barrys

this past weekend, caleb and i traveled to virginia to participate in the annual giles family christmas brunch. this was the first time that tom's extended family (on his mom's side) had met caleb. needless to say, they fell in love with him...and i'm pretty sure caleb felt the same way, at least about his great uncle barry. they really were quite silly shaking their heads and then laughing at each other. however, according to tom's brother, there's a new uncle barry in town. patrick's given name is barry patrick agnew and with the name comes the responsibility of living up to the original uncle barry's reputation of world's best uncle. throughout the weekend, new uncle barry spent plenty of time being silly with caleb himself. while new uncle barry still has a few lessons to learn from original uncle barry, he's doing a pretty good job of being an uncle. if you click on the question mark above the picture, you can view caleb's pic with original uncle barry.

say, "cheese!"

we officially have a picture of our entire family. thanks to the timer on my camera, we were able to get me and tom in the same picture. okay, so jack and caleb aren't looking at the camera, but they are both sitting still and not whining, so i consider it a victory. this picture will be included in our christmas cards, so don't forget to check your mailbox!

o christmas tree, o christmas tree

finally, the house is decorated for christmas. tom usually doesn't like to wait until december to put up the decorations, but i'm kind of glad he did this year. chasing caleb and jack away from the tree is quite a workout! while our tree may resemble charlie brown's, we're fond of it :) it's also exciting to have a real mantle to hang our stockings from this year, and caleb can't wait to leave santa milk and cookies by the hearth.

signs of christmas

we finally got our christmas tree up...yay!!! there have also been other signs of christmas around our house...caleb had his first visit with santa claus, jack has started to wear his hat, and reindeer have been spotted near our back porch :) thanks to our lovely mac, you'll have to turn your head to view some of our pictures. sorry!