A Woman's Work – Brooke Basically Blogging

Warning: This is long and has a spoiler alert about Santa.

Over the weekend at our family meeting we talked about the upcoming holidays. My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. I’ll share that blog with you all next week.

At our family meeting. I had to remind Harrison and Sydney that the elf is dead. I know that sounds mean. I am not criticizing anyone that does The Elf on the Shelf tradition. I did it for years too.

Wilbur, our Elf was kidnapped, sick, hanging from the ceiling, driving a Barbie car, you name it. One morning I woke up and realized I didn’t move Wilbur. That’s when I tossed him down the stairs and Wilbur was dead. Kids are resilient. They were fine.

Now Santa that’s another story. Harrison was believing in Santa because I think he knew it made me happy. When we moved to Delaware and before he went to middle school. I told him about Santa. That year he looked forward to staying up with me to put the toys out for Sydney. Plus he was able to open one gift at midnight. So that was special for us.

Sydney loves Christmas, singing carols, baking cookies and drinking hot cocoa. I had a toy in basement for her and she found it a few days ago. I told her I’m Santa. And she started laughing. She’s not asking to see Santa or take a picture with Santa yet.

At our family meeting I talked with the kids about what Christmas would look like for us this year. We will continue our tradition of putting up our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. We will send out our holiday photo cards. We will make a Jesus cake to celebrate the birth of Jesus. They will still get their new pajamas for Christmas Eve, including me.
In the past I would wrap books and we would read them together each night leading up to Christmas. This year, we will have our holiday books out. But I am not wrapping them. Something  I want to do this year that I found on Pinterest or Facebook is  collecting can goods for a month and donating the box to a food bank. Syd will love to help me shop to fill the box.

Harrison and Sydney made their Christmas lists. They each were asked to write down three things. Harrison had an idea of a family gift. He said we are the only family he knows that doesn’t have a big screen tv. I had to laugh because he is right.

Next, I talked to the kids about saving for our family vacation to Michigan in the June. They both thought that was a great idea. I remember the joy of Christmas when I was younger. Going to midnight mass and waiting for Santa to come. I shared with them what Grandma Lola received for Christmas when she was younger.  It was a shoe box with an orange, walnuts and candy. I think she said she remembered getting a doll made of straw and cotton one year. After hearing that, getting three gifts didn’t sound bad at all.

So as you prepare for the holiday season. Be blessed and enjoy spending time with your family. Start a new tradition or collect a new ornament for the tree. The most important thing is to remember the reason for the season.