It's Christmas Eve and I haven't blogged all week. I thought about it. I even had some ideas, but it didn't happen. I felt compelled to say something about the Holiday. To reflect on what it means and it what it's become. Something like, "What IS the meaning of Christmas?" Honestly, I don't know anymore. It means something entirely different for kids and adults. Sure, I like getting presents. But unless you can afford to buy me that new camera I want, I really don't need anything. My kids are literally OUT OF THEIR MINDS about the idea of presents. It's insane. How do I tell them it's more than presents; that it's about family and being together and oh yeah, Christ dying for our sins. Is six and three too young to understand the true meaning of Christmas? Is it enough that they are just excited about something and happy to share in some memory making? I honestly don't know.

Kids should be good all year right? Not just when we have the opportunity to blackmail them with things like Santa's Naughty List. My kindergartner is not sleeping because she's so excited. I'm not kidding. She can't get to sleep. She's up early. And even our Elf on the Shelf can't keep her from being a total pain in the butt. "Juliet Jingles is watching you! She's going to tell Santa!" This isn't having the desired result I had hoped. We move the damn thing every night (well almost every night) and still the child is acting crazy. But can you blame her? All of the hype. The decorations in the mall. The Toys R Us catalogs. The holiday specials. Santas everywhere you look. How can she not get caught up in all the hype? I'm just afraid when it's all over she's going to have Holiday Letdown and be forced to go to a children's rehab facility or something...

I guess the best we can do is surround our kids with family and show them togetherness. We can try and teach them charity in ways they can understand like picking out a toy for a Toys for Tots drop or purchasing warm socks for a homeless shelter. We can sit down for a meal and just talk or play a game. But we know it's the ripping off of the paper and getting to the gifts that our kids really look forward to. Let's hope when they are older and have their own kids they'll remember all the ways we tried to make the holidays special - Elves on Shelves and all.  

Happy Holidays to you and yours! Thanks for reading.