who's that?

The girls woke us up this morning because that darn tarantula was walking down the hall and into their bedroom.  I KNEW it was a mistake to let it live (PHIL, always trying to push his 'save the tarantulas' campaign!) Bleck, what an exciting morning.  Reason number 10,017 we are very thankful for Matt.

Can you tell this is going to be the most random post ever?

I know Thanksgiving is upon you all, but with it behind us, we spent Friday evening decorating for Christmas with the girls.  This is one of our very favorite things with them, though of course all of our ornaments are covered in mold and dust, the tree is always harboring things like above spider, and lights and ornaments just don't seem to last as long in our extreme heat and humidity.

Despite these and other obvious disadvantages to celebrating Christmas in Haiti each year (...let's just say it is NEVER beginning to look a lot like Christmas!) we RELISH the opportunity to make Christmas about what it IS about--void of tv, commercials, toy comparisons, stores, malls and commercialism.

So, as we were pulling out ornaments and finishing off a very dilapidated tree, it touched Matt and I both to find Sofie crouched on the floor, fingering an old wooden figure of Santa.

"Who is this?" she asked.

She knew the wisemen.  She had all the baby Jesus' crammed in her pockets.  She had been playing with the nativity all afternoon.  She knows what song the angels sang, she's memorizing Luke 2 with Lily.  She knows Mary and Joseph by name.

But Sofie had NO idea who Santa was.

Matt and I stood silent for a moment, pretty surprised, and then kissed her sweet cheeks.  We are doing SOMETHING right.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like we think Santa is evil, we both grew up with the die-hard Santa thing (and LOVED it), and we have not NOT told her about Santa intentionally.  Matt's FB profile is even the jolly red fellow (not saying I understand that...just saying it IS).

But it's Christmas.  And at Christmas, we talk and read and sing about Jesus.  We just missed Santa.

I'm ok with that.

I'm more than ok with that.  But she can tell you about Jesus coming into the world with passion.  I love it.

It made me realize that in ANY country, raising our children in Christ, even in a dark world, IS POSSIBLE.  DON'T QUIT.

NOTHING is wasted on your children, on your teens, on your GROWN children.  Every ounce of telling (and more importantly, SHOWING) them what is true and pure and right and godly is NOT wasted...even if it feels like it.

As I raise our toddlers in our home, my dear friend Emily raises her fab teenagers next door.  Without windows, we listen in on each other's lives, learning and growing, encouraging and praying.  Homeschooling, lessons in the kitchen, teaching, losing it...keeping it together.

What a joy it is for me to hear her entirely different stage of life with her children, and to be reminded of that truth.  Nothing is wasted, and everything taught and shared and lived deliberately, over and over and over, with patience, is become a part of who our children are.  It is NEVER too late.

What a reminder, again, this Christmas that it is NOT about Santa, and more importantly, it is NOT about my children.  It is NOT about Lily, not about Sofie, not about us.  What a joy that as we seek to show them that by teaching and living Jesus, as we seek to teach them that by the four gifts (yes, only four) they will receive this Christmas (one thing they want...this year, snorkel set and yet ANOTHER baby doll...one thing they need, one thing to wear, and one thing to read), as we seek to make Christmas full of REJOICING as the weary world he came to save...that it is WORKING.

You may not feel like it's working today.  Keep on.  What two or three simple things can we all do (or NOT do) this Christmas, to redirect our families toward Him?  despite the world?  for He who overcame it?

Wow, that was random.

As you well know, I can always say more :)

As some of you head into Thanksgiving, and as all of us head into Christmas, be encouraged, be renewed and be deliberate...it is so easy to let it all fly by.  Grateful for you each, as we celebrate Him, together!