Christmas

Christmas morning was so much fun. We woke up and opened presents with my family and you can always count on Grandpa to get a fun gift for the kids. This year he got both the grandkids a remote control car. Both Kaydence and Jaxson loved it.

 We then had Christmas our big breakfast with the Rowley cousins and later that day took a nap while we watched our new movies. We then headed over to the Goodman's to hang out for a while. When we left, Kaydence asked me to take a picture of her sitting on the brick. You'd think she would hate photos because I'm ridiculous when it comes to taking pictures, but no she loves it. 

Christmas means to much to me and I am trying my best to help Kaydence understand the true meaning, while incorporating all the fun family traditions in with it. This year I focused on helping her understand that it's not about her getting presents, but us finding people that needs presents and blessings. I've struggled with the decision of whether to have her believe in Santa or not. It came easy last year when she really expressed to us how terrified she is of Santa. That's when I decided that I'm not going to have her believe in Santa. My mom raised us kids not believing in Santa and we had the funnest and best Christmas memories ever. Still to this day are we making fun Christmas memories. We love Christmas and we are still able to try to focus on the true meaning, even though we do the fun things. My mom explained it to me in the way that she first of all felt bad lying to us. Not in the fact that it was anything bad that she was lying about because it's not, but that she couldn't bear the thought that when we found out that she'd been lying for years, how our trust in her would be doubted sometimes. She didn't want us to have any reason not to trust her. Our relationship with her is so important, and I am so grateful for her efforts in trying to keep our trust. Second, she didn't even want us to feel betrayed that she had lied to us. Third, she felt like it is confusing for children when you are telling them all about Santa and how he's real and he does all these good things, and then at the same time you're teaching them about Christ and Heavenly Father and how they're real but you can't see them. Then when they find out Santa is not real, it may be confusing for them to know if Christ and Heavenly Father are real too, especially since we can't see them, but they see Santa all the time. After all the explanation from my Mom, it really helped me recognize what I want to do with my kids. I am going to focus on keeping fun holiday traditions, but find creative ways to try to incorporate the true meaning of Christmas into it.