Christmas Treasures

This year, Christmas was exceptionally fun. Jaeden is at the age where he really "gets" what it's all about. If you ask him, he'll say "Jesus!" This is a list of things that I don't want to forget about this Christmas.



-While putting the tree up, Jaeden got excited and exclaimed, "Can we do Christmas now?"



-Shopping for him this year was fun because we got to pick out gifts from us and gifts from Santa. At my house Santa always brought the really cool gifts, but at our house Santa just brings a few things. We've decided that we don't want to be upstaged by an imaginary guy!



-Telling Jaeden about Santa was a lot of fun. I know some people frown upon that, but we've decided to go ahead and do it. We are leaving out some aspects of him (like seeing you when you're sleeping-creepy, and knowing all things, etc). We want to keep the perspective on Jesus, but we also want to have fun with it.



-Jaeden moved everyone out of the manger (including baby Jesus) to make room for his trucks. Poor Baby Jesus couldn't even find room in the stable this year!



-Jaeden is obsessed with three starfish ornaments that my mother in law made. He would constantly take them off of the tree and carry them around say, "Look, they're ready for the pool!" (they had bathing suits on)



-During the Christmas Eve service, he stood in a chair while we were singing and covered his ears because "the music was too loud!" You'd think we were raising an 80 year old man!



-Jaeden loves Santa! On the day we went to see him, we rehearsed what he would say to him (sometimes he talks about off the wall stuff and no one knows what he is talking about-didn't want that to happen with Santa). When his turn came, he walked right up to Santa, hopped in his lap and told him exactly what he wanted: "A green car from the movie 'Cars'." He had one and he left it at a restaurant, so he thought that maybe he should ask Santa for one.



-On Christmas Eve we gave Jaeden a whistle to blow that tells Santa that our house is ready for Christmas, he couldn't wait to blow it! It was really sweet to see how excited he was! He was very concerned, however, about Santa's reindeer. He asked if Santa had a car, we told him that Santa drives a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer. I don't think he bought it-the look on his face was priceless! He was also concerned that the reindeer might come in the house while Santa was inside also. He said, "Those reindeer won't come inside."



-Santa left Jaeden the car he wanted right inside his door-he has played with this car nonstop! He was so excited that he got it that morning, he kept exclaiming, "Did Santa bring me this green Doc?"



-After opening all of his presents, he said, "Can we wrap up some more presents?"



-Lots of people were telling Jaeden this year that Santa only brings presents to good boys and girls and that if he's good, Santa will bring him presents too. We don't like that because no one is good all year long. We don't want Jaeden to get the idea that he is good enough on his own and that he doesn't need a Saviour. We used this as an opportunity to teach Jaeden about grace. Even though he wasn't good all year (remember all those spankings and time outs?) he still got presents because he is loved. God does the same thing for us because he is a good God who loves us. We did not deserve to be saved, but God sent Jesus to us anyway to die for our sins and provide a way for us to have eternal life for all those who believe. There is no better Christmas gift than that!



Merry Christmas!

I was going to post pictures, but since the actual date is February 3, I figured it was pointless now! I know, I stink at this blogging thing!