Maybe Christmas Doesn't Come From A Store. . . .

Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. I know that this is true, but sometimes there are things from a store that can make Christmas fun. I have just gotten back from buying all of my kids' Christmas presents and now I can't wait for Christmas to come. Having little children has made Christmas sooo magical. I remember when I was a little girl that I couldn't wait for Christmas. My mom would decorate the house so beautifully, make cookies, make nuts and bolts, do crafts with us, do advent calendars with us, make us do service projects and just make Christmas the most wonderful time of the year. Christmas Eve was always my most favorite day of the year. We would spend the day playing and then we would get all dressed up and go over to a relative's house for Christmas Dinner, after that we would act out the Nativity (with most of the girls secretly wishing they could be Mary) and have a talent show. After that we would talk with our Grandparents and they would tell us about their childhoods. After we would go home, we would carry out the presents, one by one while listening to Christmas music. We would then open up our Christmas pj's. After changing into our new pj's we would read out of the "nice box" (this is a box that was full of pieces of paper with good deeds that we had done written on them), eat cookies, set out our stockings, and write a letter to Santa.
For most kids Christmas Day is the most exciting day of the year, and I did enjoy it, but with all of the traditions that we did on Christmas Eve combined with the excitement of what Santa was going to bring us made Christmas Eve the most wonderful day of the year. I could NEVER sleep on Christmas Eve, and so my parents had to set a time limit as to how early I could wake up on Christmas Morning. I would wake up every hour. As I grew older and became a teenager and no longer believed in Santa I would still have trouble sleeping because I was so excited for my younger siblings.
Tonight I just got back from shopping for my kids' Christmas presents. I really wish that Christmas was tomorrow because I am so excited to see my kids' faces when they wake up on Christmas morning. For the most part I do the same traditions that my mother did when I was a kid, but there are a few things that we do differently. I really wanted the kids to remember why we are celebrating Christmas, so instead of eatin cookies on Christmas Eve, we bring out a birthday cake, put a candle on it and sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. On Christmas Eve, the kids do not bring out the presents to put under the tree. I keep them all wrapped up in my closet and then on Christmas Morning when the kids wake up, Santa has taken all of the presents out of my closet and put them under the tree. It is really magical, and I love seeing the kids' faces when they see all of the presents under the tree! I still have problems sleeping on Christmas Eve, and by 6 am, Otto has usually had it and he lets me wake the kids up so that we can open presents. I just don't think that this will ever change. I hope that when they are teenagers that there will be some way for us to keep the magic of Christmas because it is truely the most wonderful time of the year!