Santa

With all the Christmas decorations up and the anticipation of visiting Santa tomorrow at our church's annual Breakfast with Santa, he has been talked about a lot this week. Tonight Claire wanted to write him a letter she can take to him. This is what she wrote:







And a picture for him too =)

She was so excited to write it for him and has it sitting right by her door so she won't forget to deliver it to him. It's a childhood memory I'll never forget!

Honestly, I've struggled with this whole Santa thing. Of course you will hear Claire quickly say "but he's not the most important... Jesus is!" and "we're celebrating Jesus' birthday". Everyday we point back to the birth of our Savior so that our focus is on HIM and not the consumerism of Christmas. But when it's all around you, it's such a challenge to escape. We keep things simple with gifts - one thing from Santa and one or two things from us (then of course they get things from grandparents, uncles, aunts) but agian, it's not all about the gifts. I think our main focus is to be on others - loving people we know and those we don't know. Serving everywhere we are and being intentional. Spending time in the word by doing Advent readings. Caroling and praising Him with the songs of the season in the car, at home, at church.

I pray that the joy, magic, celebration and anticipation of this season is about our Lord Jesus Christ....that I can not only teach my girls with words but as an example of what is the number on priority in my life.