I Believe

We've never really done the Santa thing with our kids. They just see him as a character from books and movies. I asked them about it this year. If they wished we had Santa come to our house. They said no. They were fine with things the way they've been. "Besides," said Adam, "There's no way he could get to all the houses in the world in one night." So we believe in the spirit of Santa, but not so much the guy in red himself.

But after this year, I'm seriously considering rethinking Santa. You see, he has been visiting us for weeks. Our family has been affected by the economic downturn and somebody told Santa. He has sent envelopes with money and gift certificates. He has delivered boxes of food and gifts. And on Christmas Eve he outdid himself by leaving on our front porch boxes and bags of gifts for our family. I was completely overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of our own personal Santa (or Santas). This Santa knows us well because the sizes were right on the clothes and the gifts for the kids were perfect. There were games and puzzles and toys and even a few very thoughtful things for Arrty and I. We have played lots of hands of Uno Spin and Adam is working on his puzzle as I type. And Julianna is completely in love with the blue elephant and butterfly doll that she received. (I saw the same doll while shopping and almost bought it for her because it is so cute and perfect for her since her room is decorated with butterflies.) For a brief moment I started to wrack my brain to try to figure out who could have done such a wonderful thing for our family, then I decided that the gift tags said Santa, so I would just go with that. I hope, though, that somehow all those who have been so very kind to us know that we are truly grateful.

And I hope that next year, we'll be able to do the same for someone else.

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I enjoyed seeing Marmitetoasty's Christmas tree ornaments so much that I decided to share a few of ours. Our tree is covered with all kinds of ornaments. Some are handmade by the kids. Some were given to us as gifts. And some were bought during our traditional ornament shopping trip.

Adam made this one when he was 4.

And he made this one in kindergarten.

Josh made this one in 1st grade.

And he made this one when he was 5.

This is our 2008 family ornament.

Adam's 2008 Bumble ornament.

Josh's 2008 Santa fisherman ornament.

Julianna's 2008 skating Care Bear ornament.

My angel in an egg ornament. It must be at least 25 years old.

We all love to open the ornament box and remember Christmases past. And look forward to all the Christmases to come.