Anticipation!

The girl's excitement and enthusiasm for Christmas day is amazing! It has been a fun month of celebrations but the anticipation for the big day is almost out of control! I guess it's just their age because I don't feel like we've done much different this year to build it up in their minds. Regardless, their belief in Santa is concrete, however their understanding that Christmas is truly about baby Jesus being born and is a celebration of his birth is evident in their singing of Away in a Manger 1,000 times a day!

One of the best thing has been their excitement about the gifts around the tree. The reason I say this is because there are currently only 5 boxes under the tree...one for each member of the family with their Christmas eve pj's in them. There is another stack of presents that the girls have helped Daddy wrap for Mommy and then a gift for each girl that came in the mail from Nana. But otherwise, all the presents are hidden in the basement. Last year we slowly put the gifts out throughout the month as they were wrapped and on Christmas morning there were the gifts from Santa and a few other new ones, but most were out in advanced. I didn't really plan on doing it differently this year but I just started wrapping this week. When I saw how excited the kids were about getting 2 gifts I was so elated with their anticipation of 2 presents instead of disappointed at the lack of gifts that I just decided to knock their socks of Christmas morning with all their other presents. Every day they discuss their presents under the tree and what may be inside the boxes.

It makes me proud that they can be that happy with the thought of 2 presents. We're such a spoiled nation that it's really sad that we don't celebrate a few gifts but usually expect more. I know my kids perspective will evolve over the years, but I pray that we can instill in them an attitude of gratitude in spite of presents and a continued focus on "Christ" in "Christmas."