It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our house. Leading the way in Christmas excitement is Finn - he decorated with gusto today, exclaiming enthusiastically over ornaments, asking where they came from and who made them. A few of my favourite Finn quotes during tree decorating-
'This one is sooo beautiful'
'I love this one!' (every other ornament)
'This one is from Jesus' (because it was awesome).
'Wow mommy, this is a lot of work. I'm sooo hungry and thirsty.'
Our tree has an assortment of ornaments all with special and quirky value - some from my childhood, some from Mike's, and some that we've acquired together. The angel atop our tree comes from a thrift store in High River Alberta; this find was made years ago during a break in one of Mike's basketball tournaments. When Mike and I were engaged we purchased our first joint item together, a Playmobile Nativity Set. We set this up each Christmas in the years before we had children, and now it's even more fun to set it up with the kids. This is an interactive set, most beloved by Coby, and perhaps a sign of our times, this year we seem to be missing Baby Jesus.
When Mike and I spent our first Christmas in our new house in Calgary, Mike delighted in shopping for Christmas decorations - his favourite destination was Liquidation World, and I dreaded seeing what he would come home with next - a bobble head snowman? Check. Bobble head Santa? Check. Or our now cherished black Santa. Check. Check. Martha Stewart they're not, but now I love to share the stories behind these objects with our children. But in the end, as special as these decorations are, and as important as it is to build traditions and memories with our young ones, they are just objects. Our most important task is conveying to them the real meaning of Christmas - about a little baby in a manger, and the importance that Jesus has in our lives and home.
We are looking for a good Nativity Set, you would think we would have one by now. Our first one, with Kai, was a foam one for obvious reasons. Baby Jesus also nearly disappeared but more because a little boy thought he could eat him.
ReplyDeleteAll of our childhood ornaments are on the kids tree in their bedroom...I should probably be a bit more sentimental and `let' them be on our tree but some of them are pretty interesting:)
hear, hear...well put! the excitement of our kids is truly a blessing and i love that you take the time to cherish those memories.
ReplyDeleteLouise - I've recently found out that there is a Little Peoples set too if you are looking for one that is less edible. My friend just told me it's on sale for 34.99 at Sears right now and I'm really trying to justify it in my mind.
ReplyDeleteRach - I was being sentimental the other day and thinking how much fun Finn and At would have doing Christmas crafts together (of course, this was a daydream, in order for this to be remotely possible we would have to magically remove all of our other children who aren't so craft-ready :)