Christmas 2010 {Part 2}

After lunch with the Hamachers, we headed home for naps and then got dressed for the Christmas Eve service at church.  I love evening candle-light services and this year was special since Magnolia was an angle in the Nativity scene.

Here are the girls dressed and ready for church enjoying the last hours with their pacis (more on that later).

 It's hard to teach kids, especially little ones, how Christmas, Jesus, decorated trees and lights and Santa Claus are all related.  With almost everyone celebrating Christmas in one way or another regardless of their beliefs, I even feel confused sometimes.  The season has become so mainstream that Jesus seems to be lost in the hustle and bustle.  Santa visits our house, but we don't over accentuate him...except this year when we made Santa do the dirty work for us (more on that later).  It's hard to make a 3 year old think of Jesus during Christmastime when Santa is EVERYWHERE.  I read Charlie Brown's Christmas to Magnolia in December and towards the end of the book, Linus recites the true meaning of Christmas.  I was very animated when reading that part of the book trying to make sure Magnolia could hear the importance.  I think she did.  But still after the book was over, she looked at me and said, "But Santa didn't even visit their house?!?!"  She was confused about why this was the end of this Christmas book when Santa hadn't even made his appearance.  I guess I now have a year to think of better ways to incorporate the Christmas story into Christmas.

 Our angel...

 So we got home from church and opened our new pair of pajamas and played with some of our new games and toys from the day.

 And then we got ready for Santa.  We put some cookies out for him.  This year Santa actually played an important role in our Christmas....

 He took BOTH the girls' pacis.  Of course to give to babies who don't have any.  They both placed their own pacis on the plate and were fine with letting Santa take them since he was bringing gifts for the morning.  I got this idea from my cousin, Julie.  After having tried to stop Magnolia from using a paci TWICE before and ended up giving it back to her, I thought it made sense to have someone else be the bad guy.  Because if Santa took them away, they obviously were no longer in the house!  So there was no way to talk me into giving them back.

So far, we have stuck it out, but it hasn't been easy.  Having a 3rd party actually take them has really made a big difference, though, compared to the previous times.  It's been almost 2 weeks and sleep is still lacking.  Santa not only took 2 pacis, he took Mom's sleep and Dad's patience too.  If he accidentally left those items at your house during his stop, please return them as soon as possible.