Quotable Christmas, Part 2: "Don't buy me any Christmas presents!"

We started packing up the decorations and taking down the tree on January 1, but I still have storage boxes sitting around in the living room (driving Jeff crazy) and guest bedroom. There are still a few things left to sort through and put away, and I'm hoping to get that done sometime tomorrow. I am still working on my "Christmas Resolutions," but I really don't need the decorations and boxes lying about to help me in that pursuit.

I'm sure I will think of more after I post this, but I thought I'd share another Christmas quote. About two weeks before Christmas, we got a package in the mail from Jeff's grandmother, and Caroline was so excited to see a few wrapped presents with her name on them inside the box. When I told her to go put them under the tree, she happily did so. But then she asked, "Can I open them now?" When I told her she would have to wait until Christmas, she was extremely disappointed. "Why can't I open them now?/How many days until it's Christmas?/ That's soooo long [her voice getting shakier]. I can't wait that long [shoulders sagging, almost crying]!"

A week later another package came, this time from my Aunt Karen. We opened the box and found another wrapped gift with her name on it! "Can I open it?" she asked eagerly. "No, go put it under the tree--it's for Christmas," I told her.

She could hardly bear the news. She did what I asked, but walked towards the tree carrying the gift as if it weighed 50 pounds and her arms couldn't support it. Shoulders again sagging, this time she actually did begin to cry and asked me, "Why does everybody keep sending me Christmas gifts?"

The following weekend, Jeff and I arranged for a babysitter to come over while we went out together and had a shopping date. Caroline was already excited about Katie (one of her favorite teenagers ever) coming to visit, but just to add to this excitement, I explained to her that she was going to stay home with Katie while we went out and that the reason she couldn't come along was because we were going to buy her some presents!

After Katie arrived and we had talked for a minute, she started down the hall and said, "Caroline, come show me your room." I gave Caroline a last-minute hug and told her to be good. She squeezed me back and as we were leaving called out cheerfully, "Don't buy me any Christmas presents!"

Christmas Resolutions

Caroline and I just finished our Christmas thank yous a couple days ago. Normally, this accomplishment would be the very last Christmas-related thing we would do. But I am doing something different this January than I have other years--still thinking about Christmas instead of packing it all up and storing it until next December. Every year after the holiday, I have a pretty good mental list of all the things I would like to do differently in the next year. But I don't stop and write anything down or spend time really thinking more about it once the new year gets underway.

So this year I am thinking more about Christmas resolutions than New Year's resolutions. I want to really evaluate how we celebrated Christ's birth this year and in years past and how we could do things differently in the future.

In 2006 I came across a website that outlines a plan for beginning Christmas preparations October 21 and completing everything by December 1. The idea is that if you follow this plan and do certain tasks each week, you will have a calmer, less stressful, and more joyful Christmas holiday and a more peaceful December.

The site offers helpful printables and articles, all for free. Whether or not you follow the outlined plan perfectly, it definitely provides some food for thought and an organizational framework. How nice would it be to have everything done by December 1 and then spend the rest of the month just enjoying family, observing traditions, and worshiping Jesus?

The concept is great, but I have to remember that there is more to a joyful Christmas than super organization--and that super organization, in and of itself, won't really transform my Christmas. Only Christ will. The centrality of Christ's birth at Christmas time is something I've always acknowledged, but I have also gotten caught up in all the goings on of the season and haven't let this truth really sink into my heart.

So I'm letting it sink in now, and I am thinking of ways to thank God for giving us Christ all throughout the year. And I am making plans for this December, even though it's January.

I was super excited in the midst of all this evaluating to find a book that deals specifically with incorporating into your family life daily routines and holiday traditions that center around God and honor him. It's called Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Noel Piper. The night I found the book I was so eager to dig in that I read most of it online (available for free download). It is packed with insight and truth and excellent suggestions. I've borrowed a copy of the book from a friend and am going to go through it again throughout the rest of this month and think on the questions it poses:

Guiding Questions for all our Traditions all Year
(from Treasuring God in Our Traditions)

• What is my greatest treasure? What is most precious to me?
• How do I reflect and express that treasure in my life?
• How can I pass that treasure on to my children and others within my circle?
  

Along with this, I want to consider the questions I've been asking all along and give thought to what I would like to incorporate into next Christmas.

My Christmas Resolutions, in no certain order
and some of them only in question form:

In regard to gift giving and receiving

• Buy gifts as I think of them for someone all throughout the year and save them for Christmas
• Put more emphasis on the thought behind a gift than a spending amount
• Do something with Caroline to teach her about giving in general and, in particular, to those in need
• Evaluate how much we spend at Christmas just to spend and try to determine better ways to celebrate with that money (more giving, using it towards time together with family instead of lots of gifts)
• Emphasize giving over getting with Caroline and approach the presents like they are just an extra treat, not the main idea
  

In regard to being more organized

• What things did I really want to get done before Christmas this year and wasn't able to? (making some handmade or sentimental gifts, starting a new tradition with Caroline, reaching out to the neighbors with a small gift . . . )
• When can I make time to work on some of those ideas or gifts throughout the year in order to have them done by next Christmas?
• What can I do ahead of time this year in order to be more organized?
  

In regard to being more worshipful

• How do I acknowledge the significance of Christ's birth in my heart and through my actions?
• What can I do (activity, tradition) to acknowledge the significance of Christ's birth in our home?
• How can I prepare my heart for Christmas?
• What can we do as a family to teach Caroline the spiritual significance of Christmas?
  
• See Treasuring God questions . . .

So there you have it, in case you were wondering what was going in my head lately. :) Maybe I'll have to start a segment on this blog called, "What Amber thinks" since these things really have nothing to do with "what Caroline says. " I'll be back with plenty more of that, to be sure!

Quotable Christmas

Caroline was so amped up over the holiday, she chattered non-stop--even more non-stop than she usually does. (Is that even possible, you ask? You would have to experience it firsthand to understand.) For one thing, we had all of Jeff's family in town so that meant 11 extra people to talk to!! For another, it was Christmas time and she is three. There was just so much going on and so many presents to unwrap and play with (only child, only grandchild, only neice . . .)!

Here are just a few of my favorite sayings from this Christmas:

"Just what I always wanted!" squealed repeatedly while digging through her stocking and finding, well, stocking gifts--shampoo, lip gloss, candy . . . All of these things were just what she'd always wanted.

*****

On Christmas morning before we had opened any gifts, someone (I think Uncle Josh or Aunt Meesh) asked Caroline if she knew why we gave each other gifts at Christmas time. I think she said, "nuh-uh," (which is what she says even if you've already gone over something with her; I think it's because she would like to be told again and enjoy the repetition--sometimes this is kind of frustrating), and she was told, "It's because God gave us a gift--Jesus. So we give each other gifts and remember the best gift ever that was given to us."

Caroline said, "Yeah, and maybe I will give God a gift too."

"What will you give him"

"A yo-yo."

??

*****

One evening while we were over at Dan's and Lisa's house, Caroline came running into the kitchen where most of us were and exclaimed, "Uncle ----- is sitting on the potty like a GIRL!"

"What? How do you know?"

"Cause I went in there and sawed him [laughing]!"

"What did Uncle ----- say?"

"Shut the door."

"Haven't we talked about knocking when the door is shut?"

We have, by the way. Being part Sawatzky, Caroline lacks the personal space gene--she doesn't really need her own, nor does she expect others to. In my family, a closed door means nothing. Jeff discovered this the first time he visited while we were dating. When he told me that my sister had started to open the door while he was changing, I asked him if he had locked it. He said, "No--I shut it," in a shouldn't-that-be-enough sort of tone. That's not enough around here, I explained.

The house we are renting has one of the weirdest master bedroom/bath set-ups ever, in my opinion. There are two small double doors leading into the bathroom from the bedroom and they do not lock. And in the bathroom itself, there is not a door to separate the "water closet" from the rest of the bathroom. So if you want privacy, you have to lock the bedroom doors--which are also double doors. And in order for them to lock, the first one has to be bolted with a sliding thing up top and then the second closed and locked on the handle. That's a lot of work for a bathroom trip! It makes absolutely no sense to me.

So there have been quite a few times we have not done due diligence by adequately securing the premises and have had to tell Caroline, "Shut the door! Knock first!"

I'm guessing in her eagerness to follow Uncle ----- around in order to know what he was up to at all times, she didn't remember this little rule.

*****

On a very different note, the very first thing Caroline said on Christmas morning--when we were expecting her to say she couldn't wait to open presents--was, "I can't wait to go to Heaven and see Lindsey." I thought it was sweet that she was thinking about her friend.

*****

I hope everyone had a good holiday season. I feel out of touch because I didn't send out any Christmas cards this year and haven't been on here to give an update in a long time (as Nikki pointed out). :) There is still lots I'd like to write, but this will have to be all for now. Hopefully I'll post some pictures and other things this week. Happy [somewhat belated] New Year!