The kids received a gift card from some long-distance relatives (Hi Mike! Hi Diane!), and we got the fun of going to the store and picking out what to buy. They love doing that. Gannon is really picky, turning everything down till he finds something awesome. Acadia, on the other hand, likes the first pink or fluffy thing she sees and carries it around till the next pink/fluffy thing turns up. Her first pick was a Disney Princesses bathing suit (gag re: the scantily-clad Disney Princesses). Then she wanted a fluffy red sweater-type thing. Then she fell down and whacked her head on the floor and cried and didn’t want anything for about 10 minutes. In consoling her, I brought her around Housewares, where she spied a pillow that she liked. Being both pink AND fluffy, it held her interest all the way to the Jewelry. Then she saw a very cheaply-made Disney jewelry box that cost $20. Oh, how she wanted it. I told her we could get it if it turned out to be on sale for, say, a dime. When we got to the checkout, alas, the item was NOT on sale and she cried and cried and settled for the pillow. As soon as we left the store, she expressed her adoration for the pillow and all was well.

Gannon was disappointed because the store didn’t have any toys except for those attached to t-shirts. He was willing to go for a toy/t-shirt combo with a transforming robot and a shirt featuring some sort of flaming skull on wheels. I mentioned that the shirt was kind of ugly. He said that we could just give the shirt to the thrift store and he could have the toy. Not a good deal for $10, and I vetoed that one. After passing by a certain display on our THREE trips to the rest room in the customer service alcove (which, by the way, is as far from the children’s section as possible; thanks for your brilliant, family-friendly planning on that one), he noticed a very large box containing a table-top air hockey game. The price was only $19.99! Brilliant! We placed heaved that baby into the cart and made our way to the registers.

After all our shopping, I had to fish out only $1.98 from my wallet to add to the gift card’s worth. Woo-hoo! So very fun.

And as you can see, Gannon’s gift is being enjoyed by more than just the kids.

Actually, they had already put up the decorations at the time of these photos. When we decorated, I chose to actually take part instead of viewing the whole thing through the camera. Therefore, the following photos are a little bit posed, although very true to actual events. Right down to the cheesy smiles.

Merry Christmas, friends and family!

While I was putting this post together the kids pointed out the baby on the floor. Gannon said, “It looks like it fell there and said, ‘Aw, I hate Christmas!’”

Our answer to the question, “What have you been up to lately?”

I’ve been asked to put up a list of stuff I want for Christmas. There’s a lot of stuff I want, so that seems easy, right? The problem is that I have developed this aversion to the Wish List. (As my parents can tell you, this is certainly not an issue I’ve had all my life.) But, putting that aversion aside, here’s the Christmas Wish List 2007 for our family.

Brian: See his post on the subject here.

Eva: colored cardstock, an oven thermometer, a heavy cornbread/scone pan, a small digital food scale, HP 98/95 ink cartridges for the printer, stationery

Gannon: Legos, a kid’s calculator, Calvin and Hobbes book, Garfield book, art/craft supplies

Acadia: Legos, kid-sized mommy’s helper kind of things, little girl’s nail polish/makeup, baby doll supplies, art/craft supplies

Merry Christmas!

Okay, so today I went to Wal-Mart. It’s the first Saturday in December, and the nearest [real] mall is at least 70 minutes away, and I went to Wal-Mart. I needed a Christmas tree. The ones we usually get (you know the authentic kind that smells nice and that sheds 6 pounds of needles on your floor that you vacuum up till Halloween?) do not come from Wal-Mart. This year we decided to wimp out go simple, because we prefer to devote ourselves to other things. Like baking and eating large amounts of cookies. Or just not vacuuming up all those pesky needles.

So I went to Wal-Mart. And man, was it ever awful. People everywhere, and none of them happy or looking anyone else in the eye. And anything that can possibly have Santa or reindeer on it, does. And lawn decorations. Huge, illuminated, inflatable ones. That move. And play loud music.

Everything was so…obnoxious.

It made me feel icky. I didn’t end up getting a tree there, not that the ickiness stopped me, mind you. I just didn’t find one I really wanted. I came home with a very nice one from K-Mart, 4.5 feet tall with lights already on it. No more messing with those strings year after year! That, my friend, is why these places flourish. Because I can get my artificial Christmas tree pre-lit. Pre-lit, people! Regardless of my rants against American, materialistic excess, I will still shop for my cheap plastic crap at big box stores.

Oh, they had a tree that played music too, with fiber-optics so that the ends of the branches changed color in time to the songs, but I had to turn it down.

After thinking these thoughts in my own head for a while, I serendipitously came across this post. Good for parents and grandparents to read this. It’s found at lifehack.org. Here’s one point I liked:

Counter-consumerism: I’m not preaching anti-consumerism, here — it’s pretty much inevitable that our children’s lives will be shaped by consumerism. But we can teach them to create a critical and reflective relationship with their own consumption, so that they learn to build identities that are not determined by what they buy. Thinking about the relationship between need and possession — e.g. “Do I want this toy because I actually play with it or just because it’s mine?” — can help put them on that path.

Have you ever seen more beautiful children than these?
My father-in-law took this photo. (Thanks, by the way!)

I hope you, Dear Reader, had a wonderful Christmas and managed not to make a heel (or other body part) out of yourself by saying anything snide to your spouse’s parents.

On happier notes, it snowed last night! Woo-hoo! My kids were thrilled, even though it wasn’t what they term “a big snow”. It’s kind of slushy, actually, but hey, it’s white and slippery. They’re all about slippery. They often beg me to find them another pair of socks because the ones they’re wearing don’t allow them to zoom across the hardwood floors with quite the chaotic frenzy they desire. I usually refuse, playing the too-much-laundry card.

Perhaps more about Christmas later.

Our kids are still pretty young, so our Christmas family traditions are still gelling. One thing that has already solidified is our toning down of the Santa Claus idea. We don’t ignore it, since it’s a harmless (in our opinion…please comment if you disagree) part of our culture and a fun aspect of the season. We tell the stories, emphasizing that it’s fiction. But Jesus’ birth remains the central aspect of the holiday for us.

While wasting time when I should be doing other things, I came across this post in one of my often-read blogs, titus2talk. Because it cites no source, I have no idea if the historical information about St. Nicholas is accurate, but it sounds good to me (I am so not scholarly…isn’t that horrible?). Perhaps I should look around for more information, but this is the copy-and-paste age of anyone-with-a-computer-is-an-expert, so what’s the point?
Just kidding.

Coolest Santafact Ever: Upon further clickage, I read that this same Nicholas is rumored to have laid the smack down on Arius at Nicea in defense of the Trinity. I say rumored, because the otherwise detailed records of the Council of Nicea fail to mention Nicholas at all, let alone tell the tale of his righteous indignation. (The above picture is an artist’s rendition of Nicholas’ act of defiance.)

There’s another almost equally cool story that says how Nicholas wanted to help three young ladies marry instead of being forced into prostitution, so he heaved three sacks of gold through their open window (for their lacking dowries). The sacks landed in their stockings, which were (you guessed it) hanging by the fireplace. This tale has several versions. Some are less happy than others.

My conclusion is that we don’t really know much about this guy, except that his name was Nicholas and he lived a long time ago and did some nice things. Oh, and that his actions, attitudes, or perhaps facial expression lent themselves to great exaggeration and invention. Christianity Today published a history of this colorful character as well. It’s worth reading if you’re interested in Jolly Ole Saint Nick.

Despite all this, some of us know for sure just where Santa comes from.**

** [This link contains text from a 1987 Saturday Night Live sketch.]