Christmas 2010

Sooooo, what a long holiday! I loved it, but I do have a touch of the post-Christmas blues. I hate to see my Super Bowl come to an end. At least I can try to enjoy it until the new year.

We had a pretty low-key Christmas this year. Usually, I have lots of visitors at the house including family and friends - I try to have an open house for all those people who get bored in the evening or tired of visiting their own family, or don't have any family in town to visit. I didn't really extend very many formal invitations, so this year, it was super quiet until about 7:30 when our friends Mr. & Mrs. Chesapeake stopped by with their daughter Savannah. The kids ramped up their craziness and we got to catch up with our dear friends until after 10:00 p.m. And, of course, our precious neighbor Taylor stopped by too. But until then, it was just the immediate family and Rosie - who is a great gift giver (by the way - more on that later).

Here's a picture of my dining room table all set for Christmas dinner. I'm really impressed with myself. And the beautiful centerpiece is actually a flower arrangement that I received from lead counsel on the crazy case I've been working on lately. He sent it as a "thank you" and I was really touched by his thoughtfulness.


So that doesn't even begin to sum up our holiday, but now that I'm back at work, I've got lots to do. So, I'll just tell you a little tidbit about the kids understanding of Christmas. I've been really emphasizing with the kids that Christmas is all about Jesus' birthday. So I keep asking, "Now, why do we celebrate Christmas?" It usually takes a second or two, but Luke and Evie have both learned that it is for Jesus' birthday. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself until one day Murphy (our elf on a shelf) was hiding in the beautiful nativity scene that Chuck's grandmother gave us for our first Christmas together 13 years ago. So I asked the kids that evening, "Where's Murphy today? Did you find him?"

Evie was sitting on my lap watching TV and disinterestedly said, "Oh yeah." She continued to stare at the TV without blinking.

I nudged her, "Well, where was he?"

She waved her hand in the general direction of the nativity scene (without breaking her concentration on the TV) and said, "Oh, in all that church stuff."

My eyes widened, "What do you mean by 'the church stuff'?"

She waived her hand in the direction of the nativity scene (which is actually in a different room), and said, "The church stuff in there."

I sighed my annoyance, "You mean the nativity scene?"

She shrugged.

I decided we needed to have a little lesson to understand what the "church stuff" actually was.

So, on Christmas Day, I pulled Luke and Evie over to the nativity scene (which is set up on a high shelf so they don't break it, and I asked them, "Okay, do you guys see this? What does this look like to you?"

While I was admiring the beautiful set up of Mary and Joseph standing over our precious baby Jesus, surrounded by farm animals and the wise men, Luke asked, "Are these action figures?"

I cringed. Then I decided to just embrace it and said, "Well, yes, I guess in a way, they are action figures." I proceeded to identify the different figures after they pointed out baby Jesus. As we discussed the "action figures", they put their little-kid hands all over each piece, making my heart jump in my throat as I visualized each piece falling to the floor and breaking into a dozen different pieces. Nothing broke, but I hope they understand what the "action figures" represent now.