The tree is lonely and the dog has nothing to chew on

Well, It has come and gone. Christmas day. I will start off the bat by hoping you had a great one and remembered the true meaning of Christmas....Presents. No, I kid... the birth of our Lord Jesus in a barn in the hay with stinking animals around him and the awe of his mother Mary and the man assigned to be his father on earth, Joseph and the true protection of God the Father as God the Son came to earth to teach us how to live.

In our house, I am always striving for ways to make sure that in the hustle and bustle of Christmastime the children in my care do not miss the above truth. This year I may have overdone it, but I know MB "got it" if you will. It started with a frantic search for an Advent calendar. You remember the kind we grew up with. A paper calendar with 25 windows on it, one for each day beginning December 1st through Christmas day when you opened the window to find the Baby Jesus "asleep on the hay". Have you tried looking for one lately? Not a lot of the "religious" Bible story of Jesus coming to earth, but I did find a few with Santa and presents behind all 25 doors, but that, my dear friends, was NOT what I wanted or needed. I needed spiritual truth and depth not a teddy bear and a jack in the box. I DID find a beautiful Italian-made wood advent calendar with all of the appropriate pieces that you put onto the teenie tiny nails in the stable scene..and I'm thankful to say Jesus, Mary and Joseph were not blonde haired blue eyed people. THAT is a huge relief and a discussion (rant) for a different time. But it did not provide enough "edutainment" value for a 4-1/2 year old. Maybe I underestimate his attention span...but part of me yearns to share truth with the step kids who are only here 1 week before (or sometimes after) Christmas too, so no, though I will keep my beautiful Italian Advent calendar, I had to find something different.

I found it just in time for the week before Christmas (I held out on you to see how it went over). It was WONDERFUL. It's called "What God wants for Christmas". You can get it from Focus on the Family (go to www.focusonthefamily.com) but I got mine at WalMart. I just happened up on it and knew about it and thought "what the heck....I gotta get this on a 4 year old level". In this box you will get a harder than heck to keep open manger scene (pop up), 7 boxes and a story book. You can do this any way you like, but for us, we started a few days later than I wanted and since MB is OOH so impatient, we read 2 characters per day.

Day 1 is the angel Gabriel (don't get on me about the angel looking like a woman, yes, I had a HUGE issue with that) and Day 2 is Mary. MB got to put them both in the stable wherever he wanted while Mamaw read the stories of Gabriel coming to tell us the story and Mary about the baby Jesus. Day 2 Mary finds out about the baby. The 3rd day is Gabriel telling Joseph his role in this saga. (biggest brother opened that box) Day 4 (Big brother opened that box) we meet the baby Jesus (at least, again, he is not blue eyed and blonde haired). Day 5 (opened by Uncle J) is the shepard coming to worship Jesus and day 6 (opened by MB) is the wise men (though they only have 1 they do talk about the 3).

Day 7 was the hardest day. Day 7 (which MB had a screaming hissy fit about when I told him he had to wait till the day we opened the presents to open) contains what God wants for Christmas. I'll tell you...it's a mirror in box 7. Yes, what God wants for Christmas is YOUR HEART.

Now I hear you saying "mommaria, that is too simple". Sure, but isn't the gift of God simple to receive. You betcha! Did Monkey boy get it. Yes he did. Did he give God his heart? Not yet. I don't think he totally understands it all yet (age of accountability and all that good stuff we can debate for hours if you don't agree). However, today, 4 days after we opened presents, (yes, we did that earlier than most. We only had the step sons till Christmas day and how horrible to open presents and then not get to play with them before you have to go home to your momma's house) I asked MB what God wanted for Christmas...know what he said? ME and YOU and Mamaw and EVERYBODY (added with arms flowing in big circles and dramatic flair!). You see, he GOT it. I GOT what I wanted so desperately. I know that my son knows that Christmas is so much more than the stuff he got and the food that he ate and the family that was here. That may be important, but you know what...that is not IT. MB got IT. In fact, while we were in church 45 minutes before services started (I had the wrong time again in my head...LOL) he said "mommy, lets sing Happy Birthday to Jesus!".

SO Jesus, Happy Birthday and may we be able to celebrate many more with understanding that it's not about us...it's about what YOU want for Christmas, which happens to be US.