Santa...

Happy Thanksgiving!!! We had a FANTASTIC and fun day today with family and friends... lots of eating, talking, catching up with friends and family, playing volleyball, more eating, kids watching a movie together, football on, desserts!, laughing, and just a great time. I love getting together with family for holidays.

My all time favorite part of today, and always has been, is before we eat. We gather up in a huge circle, and my grandpa says a beautiful prayer of thanks to Jesus. It's awesome, and I treasure those moments before our meal together. It's when we're all connected together (holding hands), and honoring the One who deserves all the praise!

So after a long, fun day at my aunt and uncle's house today, we got home and got started with the bedtime routine. Our Dane, 6, has been struggling lately with being rather whiny and sensitive (especially when he's tired). So it felt like one thing after another that he was upset about, sad about, embarrassed about... you name it. It was taking all that was in me to stay patient with him.

As I climbed up his bunk bed to give him a hug and kiss goodnight (and was very ready from a long day to just be done and go relax in the family room with Zach), here's the conversation that took place. It was so wonderful, and I am so grateful that we had it, and it left him feeling peace as he went to sleep- and me feeling peace about some of the decisions we've made with the way we parent our kiddos.

Warning... this may be hard for some of you to read who disagree with our choice to tell our kids about Santa... but if you hang in there, I promise it has a great ending (in my opinion) that actually made me very glad we're doing things this way. :)

Dane: "Mom, how will Santa know?"
Me: "How will he know what?"
Dane: "How will he know that I want Batman ear phones?" (I knew why he was asking... he had already made his Christmas list that we sent to his grandma, grandpa, and great grandma, and he saw these ear phones after he made the list- so it wasn't on it...)
Me: "Honey, who gets you presents?"
Dane: "Santa?"
Me: "Are you sure? Remember talking about that? Who brings you presents?"
Dane: (with a knowing look on his face, but still asking..."Who?"
Me: "Me and Daddy do, sweet boy. Remember Santa is so much fun for us to pretend about, and we can do it as much as we'd like because it's so much fun to pretend. But mommy and daddy are the ones who bring you presents."
Dane: "Then how come we saw Santa Claus when we visited Grammy and Poppie and he gave me a firetruck?"
Me: "Because that was someone who was dressed up as Santa who came to Grammy and Poppies house, and brought you a fun gift- he was pretending and having fun with us."
Dane: "Why didn't he tell us he was just pretending then?"
Me: "Because he was acting, and you know that when you're acting in a play or in a movie, you don't come out of character. You stay in character the whole time. Because it wouldn't seem right if in the middle of the play or movie, the character said to you in the audience "By the way, I'm not really ________ character, my real name is Dane Shepherd, and I'm just pretending to be this character"
Dane: he totally understood what I was saying because he loves acting... "Then I don't understand!" (as he threw himself down on his pillow) "How come Saint Nick had to die! How come it was God's plan for him and all of us to get old and die and go to heaven??!" (We shared the story of Saint Nick, who he was, what he was all about, and that he did die a long time ago, and he was such a wonderful man who loved to surprise people with wonderful gifts, that his legacy of giving gifts lived on, and now people pretend that "Santa" (which comes from his name) brings gifts... and it's turned into quite a story that we can now have lots of fun with... and we make SURE that the kids know it is NOT their job to tell ANY kid about Santa)
Me: "That's a really great question bud..... well I'm not totally sure on why we only get to live a certain amount of years, but there's one thing I do know... God's plan isn't for us to live on this earth forever, and I'm glad for that. Do you know why?"
Dane: intrigued... "Why?"
Me: "Because our time here on this earth is short compared to His plan for us to be with Him and spend forever with Jesus in Heaven... now THAT is going to be incredible. Think of your most favorite things ever, ever, ever. Once you think of those things, know that Heaven will be even BETTER than those things!"
Dane: his wheels are now spinning, thinking of all his favorite things, and he started to talk about them.

I stopped him and asked if he'd be able to think about them in his mind and fall asleep thinking about how awesome Heaven will be. He agreed. And on my way out, he said, (sounding so content and at peace.... much different kid from nearly 5 minutes earlier when he was arguing, annoyed, whiny, and just seemed "off") "Good night mom. See you in the morning." And that was literally all that I heard from him for the rest of the night. And I know that he's peacefully sleeping in his bed, having fallen asleep thinking about how AWESOME our God is.

Now, I'm not saying that everyone has to do things the way we've chosen... by telling our kids about Santa and not hyping it up... at all. I think it's such a fun thing, and exciting too. I just know and believe that it's the best thing for our family. And I don't think any differently of any family who does do Santa. At all! Not one bit! :)

To be honest, it's hard to feel like we're stepping out of the box, so to speak, by not doing Santa. And at times, I don't like feeling set apart from what feels like everyone else (we do have some friends that don't do it, but most people we know and love very much do) because I don't want to be "different" or be looked at differently or to feel like others disagree with the way we do things. Because, doing things different than the norm is at times uncomfortable for others, and for me! And I am a total people pleaser, so I tend to worry that I'm somehow disappointing others by doing this... even though it's probably all in my head. But I have to rest in knowing that we are doing our best to be lead by the Holy Spirit, and doing our best to follow that leading. And it could change at any time... this I know for sure. Just when we think we're doing things the "right" way... bam, time to change things. :) You know what I mean? When I told that to my mom, she said, "Honey, welcome to the world of parenting... it changes all the time..."

I just never wanted to forget this night, and record how neat it was. So there ya have it! I have MANY, MANY more posts to do, so I can catch up... but for now I'll just post this one and hopefully begin the journey of catching up this week!!