I did, however, get stockings made for everyone in the family. Here they are:
I decided to make some because we just had a mish-mash of ugly ones. Ava had a white one back from when we thought she would be an only child. (Can you hear me snorting?!) And then we bought some more from the thrift store for all the new kidlets and I felt even worse about them. So I headed to JoAnn's and bought fabric and came up with those. I am pretty proud of them if I do say so myself. I just winged it. No pattern, examples or anything. And I noticed that the stockings spell out A OK because of the order of our kids' names. Funny. Chris and I have them too, but since we have no fireplace and this mirror only has 5 hooks they are resting on a chair.
Totally finished with my shopping, although I still have lots of my homemade gifts left to finish. It felt so weird to be shopping for our children knowing that last Christmas they had nothing, and now how their lives are permanently different now that they are with us.
We never go all out at Christmas and really try to keep the focus on Jesus. We don't do Santa which has led to lots of interesting things when out in public. Like our kids telling other kids that there isn't a Santa and horrifying both them and their parents. And then our kids wondering why other parents would lie to their children. I read on a blog called Gus and Lula (don't know how to link, sorry) that they are using the jingle that goes like this:
"Something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read"
I thought that was clever, and practical, but still allows for something you "want" and for it to seem magical. I think Chris and I are going to put this into play next year. And just to be clear, that is still 4 presents for each kid, which in our case would be a combo of 20 presents total, but we aren't talking expensive presents. My kids love those fancy toothbrushes with characters on them, which we don't normally get, and you can find those at the dollar store, thus fulfilling the something you need category. We will sit down with the kids and share the little jingle above and how we are applying that for our family. I will admit that Owen thinks if you put something on your wish list that you are going to get it. We're still working on that!
Anyway, hope you are able to find some time during this mad, crazy rush of a week leading up to Christmas to reflect on Jesus' birth here on this earth and everything set into motion because of that. He loves each and everyone of us and this seems especially fitting this year. Just as Kembia and Moyz were adopted into our family, we can be adopted into Jesus'.
I love that jingle! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWe don't plan on having "Santa" either, and the explanation will be simple: "There is no Santa Claus like the guy at the mall, sweetie. There was a Saint Nicholas, who was the Bishop of Myra a long, long, long time ago. He helped children who were poor and homeless. But he never flew with reindeer or came down chimneys. He was just a very holy and good man who helped people who had no one else to help them. He did these good things because he believed in Jesus, and wanted to be more like Him, just like we do." The End.