December musings

This picture is of Zack right after church Sunday.  I love my big, sweet, snuggly boy.

All of our presents are here (Mark and I bought EVERYTHING online once again this year on Black Friday), and they are wrapped.  It is just good to get that over with and then enjoy Christmas Eve.  A ginormous box with a big surprise present arrived today.  I am hoping it was a good idea....I'll let you know on December 26th.

You know that we do not do Santa at our house.  Every now and then I am reminded why.  If you don't know the whole story, here's a link to a post from a few years ago.  I grew up having Santa come to our house, and Mark did not.  My parents didn't ever use Santa to threaten us into being good, and I was not traumatized when I found out that Santa was a phony.  I just can't lie to my kids.  I am totally not judging people who do play up the Santa thing with their kids--unless they are like the lady I nearly punched in the face at Joann's the other day.

Her little boy was grabbing all the candy that they have right at the checkout, and this loser mom was getting frustrated with the little boy's tenacity.  She finally used her meanest voice and scolded him by saying, "You know that Santa will not come visit little boys who do not do exactly what their moms tell them to do."  The little boy was heartbroken, and put the candy back.  I was so angry.  Usually I only get angry at checkouts when someone with one item asks if they can cut me in line, but this day was a whole new level of checkout-stand-rage.  I turned and glared at the mom.  It wasn't just her tone of voice, but the way she threatened him was abusive to me.  

Sure, as kids we all heard that if you were naughty you would get a lump of coal--my parents never said that--but we all knew it.  And they didn't teach us the song "I'm getting nothin' for Christmas" for nothin'.  I also grew up with the legend of the Weinachtmann who brought bad kids sticks and filled good kids's shoes with candy on December 6th.  That's not what I'm talking about.  This mom at Joann's was really maliciously threatening this poor little boy because he was doing what every single normal kid in the world does.  It wasn't naughty.  It was curious, and he likes candy.  Who doesn't?  It took everything I had to NOT crouch down and take this little boy's face in my hands and say, "You know what, dude?  There is no Santa!  Do whatever you want!"

But I didn't.  I wish I had.  I was just so upset about the way she talked to her kid.

The other day Savanna asked if we could get lunch at Panda Express.  I told her, "Sorry, babe.  But no mysterious fat guy in a red suit brings presents to our house, so we are saving our money for Christmas presents."  She laughed her head off.  And I felt completely liberated knowing that I could tell my kid that and she found it funny and knew it was completely true.  At the same time she knows she is getting Christmas presents from her mom and dad who love her to death and Santa is a fun story and there are awesome movies about Santa.  And Elves.

I'm not trying to persuade anybody to not do Santa.  I just can't do it.

While I am ranting, here's another topic.  Music.  Lindsey posted a question on facebook the other day that got me thinking.  She asked about new Christmas CDs.  I had never heard of a couple of them, so I went online to look at them, because everything Lindsey likes is cool.   I first went to She & Him, and although I do like the voice of "She" I was sad to see that they had purposely left off all songs about Christmas.  Lots of snow, sleigh rides and Santa.  But nothing about Jesus.  I find it upsetting when an artist makes a "Christmas" CD with not one single song about Christmas.  That is what I found on She and Him.  Nothing about the true meaning of Christmas.  It made me mad, so I didn't buy it.

 I fell in love with The Lower Lights.  I had never heard of them, but as soon as I found their website and listened to a couple of tracks, I ordered the CD.  I love it.  I love that it is not just "Holiday" music, but Christmas music.  As in about Christ.  

I actually love a mix of both religious and non-religious songs at Christmas time.  The Carpenters Christmas Portrait is a perfect example.   I love the new Michael Buble Christmas CD, which is mostly a "holiday" CD, but at least he threw me a bone with "Ave Maria."  And Justin Bieber cared enough to throw in Silent Night and Drummer Boy.  Even Jewish Neil Diamond has Christmas CDs chock full of both holiday and Christmas songs.  Ever heard his Candlelight Carol?  One of my all-time favorites.  Go to itunes and check it out.  I need a mix of both types of songs--fun and religious.  That's what Christmas should be.  Fun.  And religious.

Speaking of Lindsey, she asked for more picture of Aubrey's dress.  I aim to please, so here is one showing the full dress.  Aubrey doesn't like this picture, and her dress looks a bit wrinkly because she left it on the floor after the dance and put in on for church the next morning when I took the photo.  But it shows the whole outfit.  I originally made a zebra-stripe bolero to go with the dress, which was a good concept, and it was really cute by itself, but when she put it on with the dress it just looked odd.  Luckily she had a little black cardigan that did the trick.

This shameful picture is of Abram on November 30th.  He grew out his beard for the entire month of November, and this is what it looked like.  I was so excited for December 1st to see his sweet baby Abey face again.  That's a lot of facial hair for a 17.5-year-old.

A random post, I know.  But that's what's been going through my head the past few days.