I've had an enormous struggle for whatever reason this season, not to completely go overboard buying gifts for Lake. He's at such a fun age, and he's so much more vocal this year. He's been meticulously going through the Christmas catalogs (btw, how are we on SO MANY CATALOG LISTS? I don't shop THAT much!) picking out all the things he wants 'Santa' to bring him. He's at the point now that he's saying, "Santa's going to bring me everything on this page." He's not, but I'm having a hard time explaining that to him. He has quite the little sense of entitlement. He's three. I guess his world still revolves only around him. I've been trying to teach him about all the little kids in the world that don't have beds, toys, clothes, etc..but I'm not sure he's getting it quite yet. It's hard to explain privilege to a 3 year old, but we're starting early. I desperately want to instill a sense of service in him young; simply due to the fact that we do have a greater responsibility because we are privileged to those who are less fortunate than we are.
I've also been teaching him about Creation this season, and how God made the mountains, rivers, people, animals and all the other glorious riches on our Earth, so he's been getting God and Santa mixed up. (Naturally. They're woven from the same thread, right? Both are givers of great gifts. I can see where he gets them confused.)
The other day he said, "Mommy, my toys are so beautiful." (I always talk about the beauty of the trees, or the flowers, etc). Then he said, "God made them. He made them ALL for me." I was like, hmmm. Well, Santa made the toys, and God made people, and people help Santa pass out the toys..which made him pretty happy. At least he's getting the concept, or at least starting to, right?
We're also having work done on our chimney. Yes, it's official. We live in a money pit. If you haven't seen the 80's classic film by that title, watch it. That's our house. The chimney needs rebuilt. (Shock. Disbelief.) Of course, I've been discussing Santa coming down the chimney as we've been talking about the upcoming holiday; which led Lakie to believe the masons who brought the scaffolding and started working on the chimney yesterday were 'Santa'. He said, Mommy, "Santa is outside, working on the chimney. Let's go see him!" Last time I checked, Santa wasn't two, 6 foot tall 200 + pound bearded dudes in Carrharts chugging Diet Cokes, but hey that may be some kids' Santa somewhere in the world! He had to go out and say hello to them, just to make sure they WEREN'T Santa, but he was still very impressed with them both.
Regardless of his confusion on who Santa is, where he's coming from, and in what shape or form, there is still boundless JOY emanating from every little pore of his being - and I must say this has been the most fun holiday already. We decorated the Christmas trees on Sunday and he was just in absolute awe of it all. The perfect summation of that day was "Mommy, I LOVE my Christmas Trees. I love them." I still have quite a bit of decorating left to do, but he's loving it already.
I'm wishing each of you boundless joy too this Christmas...hopefully, it will be less energetic than my little bucket of joy, but present in your homes anyway!
Peace & Grace,
No comments:
Post a Comment