Children Singing.

Today was a very busy productive day, as we get into the swing of the holidays around here. Hallelujah! my grading is completely done, and I can now turn my attention to Christmas and all the fun things we do to celebrate this time of year. On the to-do list for the week:
Monday-->shopping for stocking stuffers; visit to the Critter Barn for their live nativity display and interacting with all the animals
Tuesday--> kids' karate demonstration/Christmas show
Wednesday-->Hayden's Preschool Christmas Tea; bake and decorate Christmas cookies;
Thursday-->Making gingerbread houses with Kennedy's first grade class;
Friday-->run Kennedy's class Christmas party; drive through the light display at our local ball park; leave for my parents' house for our family Christmas

Whew! I have a lot to do before then, but it's a very fun kind of busy!

Today, we spent the morning caroling with Kennedy's Girl Scout Troup at a local nursing home. There is nothing like children singing to put one into the Christmas spirit. Then on to some errands, a mommy-daughter lunch out at Cracker Barrel, and decorating the outside of the house. I never go overboard on lights, but I like to have a few strings of white icicle lights hanging from the porch. I also tied new bows for the wreaths and looped pine garland on the porch. The photo below was about half-way through the process...I had to take a break and warm up because it was very COLD! I will post photos later in the week of the finished look. Tonight was shopping for new week's class party, getting all the supplies for Christmas cookie making.

Tomorrow morning brings our church Christmas play, entitled "The Rainbow of Christmas." I wrote the play and am directing it, so I am nervous but looking forward to seeing the kids do their thing....then a long, long, LONG Sunday nap!!

2 Years Ago......

.....my sister married the man that God fashioned just for her. I will always remember fondly how gorgeous that December 10th wedding was.....the quaint little church tucked into a small snowy town, how radiant my sister looked in her white fur-lined cape, the holiness of the event. How beautiful my then-4-year-old little girl looked in her green and red as the flower girl/bell ringer.

So, even though this is coming 2 days late, the sentiments are the same.....we love you guys, Kendra and Dan, and are so excited to see what God has blessed you with. Happy 2nd wedding anniversary, and may our Amazing God bless you with many more (by the way, as I was typing "Amazing God" I accidentally typed "Amazing Bod".....so we will just leave it at that!) :).

Almost Done. Almost.

Well, I have one stack of exams and one stack of papers left. By this time tomorrow, I should have all my grades entered into the computer, processed, and another semester closed. Then, on to planning my daughter's Christmas party and getting serious about shopping and decorating. Our poor tree looks so bare, and we are dying to get it all embellished with our ornaments and the kids' creations.

And here's a belated birthday photo to honor my little Sister, Haley Jo, who turned 25 on Friday. Here are some little kiddo birthday kisses across the miles! Love you, Little Sister, and look forward to seeing you at Christmas.

So Behind.

Here it is, the 9th of December, and I am already feeling behind. Here is a photo of our family Advent house, and I wish that I could say that its little doors were filled and we were up-to-the-day with opening the numbered doors. But the truth of the matter is.....only half of the boxes are filled and we have yet to open the doors. The first days of this month have just slipped away from me. I am feeling like such a bad-holiday-mom, but I am hoping that I can make up some lost ground this week. We have a few touches of Christmas around the house, including:

The tree is up and waiting for decorations.

The Christmas nativities are on the mantel, and the kids' nativities are on the hearth for them to play with as they choose.

The Christmas book collection is in the basket next to the fireplace.

I ordered a new stocking for Ruby.

I have started to a buy a few gifts and some stocking stuffers, but I really need to get through this grading first to start focusing on Christmas preparations. Today, we attended a Christmas dessert at the Meijer Gardens....so gorgeous. They have the most amazing display of Christmas trees from around the world.....Denmark, Belize, Mexico, France, Ireland....my favorite this year was from Japan, with its strings of colorful origami birds. We have some delectable desserts and enjoyed some tropical temperatures in the atriums, along with a charming holiday train that circled through the lush plants. If you live in Michigan, you just have to visit the gardens when you can.....you will not be disappointed.

Today also included our final Christmas program rehearsal at church. It went pretty well, and it will be fun to see the kids perform next week. We had dinner tonight at some friends' house, and the kids had so much fun playing with their little girl. Tomorrow brings spelling tests, preschool, and an end-of-the-semester party with some of the advanced psychology students. Time to get back to those papers......

Buried under Piles.....

.........of grading. I'm seeing sentence fragments, dangling participles, and split infinitives in my sleep. I love my career path on most days but at the end of the semester, when students (and faculty) are stressed and the assignments start rolling in, I could easily do without it. But, I'm making progress, and the end is in sight. I need some good "scrap therapy", and it is set to happen on Saturday, when I get together with an online scrap-artist group for a full day of creative scrapping fun.

By the way, we added a reader of "Table Scraps" from Canada....Welcome! It is one of my blogging goals to have a reader from each continent by the end of 2008, so spread the word to your international friends.

And now, happy Thursday night, and back to the piles.........

The Value of Santa Claus?

There are few people or figures as controversial as Santa Claus. Growing up in the conservative Christian church for my whole life, I have heard all of the arguments....Santa is all about materialism. Santa replaces Jesus as the focus of Christmas. Children should be allowed to believe in Santa Claus. Children should never be allowed to think that Santa is real. So where do I stand on this matter?

Today, I received the Communique, which is the monthly research publication of the National Association of School Psychologists. Typically, this is a publication filled with scientific research and practice information on the topics of learning, schools, intelligence and child development. This issue, however, had an interesting headline that grabbed my attention: CHILDREN AND SANTA CLAUS: The BENEFITS of Belief. Tracing the history of St. Claus, it is interesting to note that he had a strict religious upbringing in Turkey and very much represented charitable giving, goodwill and acts of selfless kindness to others. Santa Claus has persisted in our culture as a larger-than-life legend, and he is often viewed as an icon of our materialistic society.

So how do children view Santa? Research examining children's letters to Santa--yes, people actually do this type of research for a career!--suggests that children view Santa as part God figure, part grandpa, and part social worker/counselor. Further, most children's belief in Santa persists only to age 7. Are these beliefs beneficial for kids? Does this promote deceit and greed and lure children away from Jesus? Or does it promote traits of goodness and kindness and cooperation? Consider the following statement from psychologist Breen (2004): "Teaching children to be less selfless depends partly on the gradual development of cognitive recognition of the needs of others, and children begin to comprehend sharing through similar experiences within the family unit. Many children grasp the symbolic lessons regarding charitable giving and consideration of others from the Santa rituals." Of course, children can also learn these lessons through ongoing involvement in an outreach-focused church, but the argument deserves some consideration.

Ultimately, I think that one of the main reasons why I am OK with my kids' believing in Santa is because it is just plain fun and mysterious and magical. It embodies the magic of childhood. Bowler (2005) stated it this way: "Santa Claus may give children a sense of mystery and wonder, an altered view of the passage of time, a taste of magical thinking, an exercise in imagination, and a chance to practice kindness." And it also gives parents the chance to be part of the magic of the season, if only for one night per year......"on the cheeks and foreheads of every child are invisible marks left by the lips of invisible mothers and fathers who have stolen into their sleeping child's room and kissed them in the night. Santa Claus is the midnight visitor whom parents long once a year to be--silent, benevolent, and universally loved."

On our mantle are 3 different types of nativity scene sets, and we have several traditions to help us to keep our primary focus on Jesus during the Christmas season, for that is the true meaning of Christmas. We sing Christmas hymns, attend Christmas services, pray, discuss the nativity, and have a birthday party for Jesus. But we also leave room for our children to believe in Santa.......we leave peanut butter cups on the fireplace which are always mysteriously gone in the morning, we visit Santa at the mall every year, and we talk about Santa filling our stockings. After all, Jesus adds a lot of the magic to the Christmas season, but what's a little more magic clad in red-and-white to magnify the season's magic.

Santa {or Grinch} Parade.

We are buried in a fresh coat of snow this morning in West Michigan. It appears that winter is here to stay.....so we are praying for a good accumulation of snow for Christmas. The past few years, it seems that we have had a green Christmas with a light dusting of snow at best. Very different from my childhood Christmases which involved many, many inches of snow for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.

Weekend Highlights included our little town's Christmas parade and a visit to see Santa and his real reindeer. It was fun but IT WAS COLD! The kids started out in festive holiday spirits, but by parade time, they were freezing and grumpy. Thankfully, the parade lasted all of 12 minutes before we could get back in the car and head for our toasty-warm house.

Yesterday involved a quick trip to Central Michigan for our nephew's brunch wedding reception, and then home in time for my local scrap store's annual VIP status. I'm not sure exactly how much you have to spend throughout the year to be considered "VIP" but let's just say......I get an invitation every year! I picked up a new album, some supplies for an acrylic album that I am going to do over Christmas break, and a new supply of basic Bazzill cardstock. I then stopped for some fajitas and a cup of peppermint white chocolate mocha on the way home......a touch of holiday mint is always so yummy and soothing at this time of year.

Today is school volunteering and then hopefully getting some Christmas decorations out to start sprinkling touches of Christmas around our home. Happy Snow--filled Monday.