merry and bright

Let's talk about "doing Santa".  We do.

Its not confusing to them.  That's a grown-up worry and little kids just don't care.  Confusing to kids are things like:

why do hair and fingernails grow but teeth don't?
why does dad say chicken nuggets aren't real food?
what do you mean Jesus wasn't really born on December 25 when that's his birthday?
why do I have to look at my presents under the tree for a week before we open them?
why is hot chocolate not a vegetable?

Kids say: Is it magical?  Is it believable?  Is it fun?  Does it involve candy?

Then they are IN!

The whole what-is-the-real-meaning-of-christmas-and-santa-makes-it-not-about-Jesus thing....I just don't see it.  As much as we adults would like it to be, Christmas is not about absolutes like stables and dates and incense and myrrh.  Its about God being so in-love with this insane world that he sent Jesus to it to teach us some really important things.  Its about the magic of family and generosity and hope.  Its about kindness and simplicity.  And we celebrate all that with things like sugar cookies, advent candles, presents, Luke 2, and Santa.

Eva figured it out around age 7.  Actually she realized that the Birthday Fairy (who leaves balloons in their room and a tiny gift by their door on their big day) was us.  So we wrote her a letter saying:

its us
its been a treat to play this with her
we are so happy she can believe in things she doesn't see or fully understand
she'll need that skill all her life long
the same thing is true with Santa
and now she'll get to help be the fairy and santa for the littles.

She was all-in as long as she still got a full stocking too!

This is the same Santa we've been going to see since Eva was 2.  He remembers her and gives her a big hug every year.  And with a twinkle in his eye asks what she wants for Christmas, even though they have silently communicated to each other that she's in on this gig.  He takes the time for each kid, looking them in the eye and reminding them that they are special and Christmas is special, and he sees them.  He is not in a hurry.

If we grown-ups want to be real with children about the meaning of Christmas, about who Jesus could be to them, we could begin by stepping down from our heads and taking a lesson from Santa.

Let's look them in the eye.
Hug them.
Ask them what they really want.
Get on their level.
Slow down.
Tell them they are loved.
Let hope crackle in the air between us.

That, my friends, is magical, don't you think?  That is merry and bright.  That is love.  And that is the spirit of Christmas.

present

"I am convinced that the purest form 

of spirituality is the ability to accept the 

“sacrament of the present moment”

and to find God in what is right in front of me."   

- Father Richard Rohr

So....its not whooping cough!  But my sweet little man ran a fever for 6 days.  He's finally back at school this afternoon, and his first ever - oh be still my heart - Christmas program tonight.  After 4 days, Sage's fever is gone too.

I strained something doing a huge happy dance when we didn't have to quarantine. But we've still been in our house for the last 4 days because of the whole Ryan-being-gone-kids-having-fevers thing.  I'm such an extrovert that I've developed a tick.  And you know that amazing stuff I imagined him doing while he was away?  Its even better than that.  Here's the picture he sent me of the coffee stuff at their break time:  Who does coffee like that?!  Geez.

Its gourmet everything.  Last night he went to an Ohio State basketball game.  Box seats.  Free.  And there's turn-down service, with lindt truffles every night!! 

But here's the silver lining of these days:  As Rohr says, "accepting the sacrament of the present moment"...

This morning, I heard hundreds of birds in the tree outside, singing the bird Doxology so deafeningly loud.  I went to the door and let in the cold air and listened, totally filled and lifted up by the holy in their song.  I went to get my camera and opened the door again far too loudly, and they were off.  I was left with the bare branches and my warmed-up insides.  A week ago, I was so distracted I wouldn't have heard them at all.

 

We decorated gingerbread houses.  I have these teeny tiny, ever so small really, control issues which usually make doing this with the kids zero fun for all involved.  But this time we were breathing and laughing and God was showing up everywhere - especially with that Eva girl.

 He had to do this between sides of his house.  Sweet little fever boy.

They sell a "Hannukah House", which works out verrrrry well for little Miss Frozen.  Elsa lives in a gingerbread house now too.   

And look what I got:

"Tonya I love you so much that I could love you forever" from Riv last night.  Makes my insides hurt it feels so good.

So today....bigtime thankful for returning health....and centered by the chance to be present again.  Here I am, getting all these presents around for the holidays, and at the risk of sounding like a cliche with this pun, this is SO the only present I need.  Really.

quarantine

1.  There's always something to lick around here.  Yesterday it was brownie batter.  The day before that it was the glass window at Papa Murphy's pizza.  You know that oral phase the child psychology textbook says kids go through around age 1?  (Yes, the one that made us all snicker when they said it.  That one.)  Welllllll, we are still in it.  Missed graduation.  But I'm really not criticizing the littles because I'm pretty much still there too.  Ahem...case in point, this blog has a recipes page a mile long.

2.  Ryan is quite literally a rockstar.  He has an incredible job with an out of this world set of bosses who are putting him through a one-year business master's at Ohio State.  I'm imagining him sleeping on flights, reading people magazines in airports, taking long hot baths in a swank hotel, staying up late watching Friends reruns on cable TV, and sleeping under one of those thick down comforters on 18 pillows.  Oh wait, that's what I would do.  But still...he gets to go away for a week at a time every single month.  See?  Rockstar.  

3.  This happens to be the week he's gone.  I was freaking out about the before-school part of the day because I usually get to clomp around the kitchen drinking coffee, my sole purpose being to be upright and in the flesh and self-medicating with caffeine before we begin the day.  He does the rest.  So he made these handy dandy charts, and they work like MAGIC.  So I think I can handle mornings.  Or at least try.

4.  Ok, so Ryan's in Ohio and we like to lick things.  So of course, this happens:

High fevers.  My poor little babies!  They got flu tested today, and they don't have it.  They also got whooping cough tested, and we're waiting on the results.  (Yes, Jake, they've been vaccinated.)  Apparently, good old H-Town is a hotbed of it right now, so chances are good that's what's going on, and if that's what it is we get to quarantine for five, count them f-i-v-e days.  With our tallish, handsome man in another state.

So we'll see.  Chicken noodle soup and orange juice all around.  Spiked for yours truly.  And most importantly, get those babies better!