Merry Christmas

What can I say? We are so very blessed...

I think of all Christmases, this one was the best one, at least for me. I have a wonderful daughter and a wonderful husband.

When I was growing up I heard of Jesus, but He was never the center of attention on His own birthday party. I guess I cared more about Santa, who didn't even exist...

But this Christmas was different. I've been a Christian for 4 years now, but having a baby changes your world.

There was excitement, even if Libby had no idea what was going on. Looking at her all dressed up, going to church, watching her opening the presents...there was joy in my heart :)

We cooked one day before, on the 23rd. We made tamales, refried beans and cochinita pibil. I also made a cheesecake, it was a new recipe to try, and it was awesome.

Taking the family picture was challenging, but not   impossible. I was right when I told Emerson it was gonna take us like an hour, but it didn't take us that long. Libby was still all the time and she would move exactly when the timer went off. But I think we had very pretty pictures of her and of us.

She got many presents, almost everything was for her. Emerson bought us a handy cam, and I was very excited. I know she is still a baby, but it felt good not to mention Santa at all. I think we made the right decision about not doing the whole  Santa scam.

I understand if parents want to do it, but I just can't lie to her, and then have to break her heart telling her the truth, or even worse, a stupid kid breaking her heart. Although, now that I think about it, she might be one of those children that everybody hates because they go on telling others about Santa, but there is always a loving way to communicate truth, even if the truth hurts.

Oh, well, we have time to explain to her the whole thing, and teach her that everyone has the choice of believing in something, even if that something is fake. Mostly we have to teach her to share the real reason for Christmas instead of telling children that Santa is not real.

I liked the tradition that we started, mostly because she couldn't fall asleep very easily on Christmas Eve. I went into the bedroom to hug her and I whispered that she had to go to sleep because Jesus was about to be born. I said, "Tonight many years ago Mary and Joseph were looking for a place to stay because Jesus was about to be born, but they couldn't find any. When you wake up tomorrow, we will read the whole story and how it happened, and we will sing Happy Birthday, Jesus."

And so on Christmas Day, we read the story from her Bible and sang...next year there will be a cake on Christmas morning so we can sing to Jesus, maybe she will even blow a candle :)) 

On an interesting note, I'm starting a cake decorating class beginning January. I'm excited, very excited.