So this is Christmas..

So far, so good. It's December 8th and despite another open home tomorrow this household (this mama in particular) is relatively stress free. It is a very nice feeling in what has traditionally been a crazy time of year.

Previous years were all about getting school reports written, end of year tests done and documented. Our wedding anniversary on the 1st has almost always been a side thought as we rushed around with end of year gatherings, prize givings and the like.  Then we had children and the teacher stress was replaced with the parenting stress of making Christmas memories, traditions that our kids would thank us for. Starting advent calendars, filling them up with a month worth of excitement, decorating the house with the latest trendy craft inspired by the Christmas Editions of my house and garden. A magazine I would literally dribble over when it arrived in the post. Then there was the taking our kids to visit Santa, the photo on his lap, Christmas production rehearsals at Church and kindy, getting Christmas cards written and sent, overseas parcels posted. And while I would say to the kids, "Christmas is Jesus' birthday, remember it's all about him" There were all these deadlines, all this rush rush rush to create the perfect Christmas and while I may have said that, and set up the token Nativity scene in our fireplace, what my kids were really seeing from me was that Christmas was all about them.    

 I remember last Christmas, sitting in the lounge watching my kids whine over been bored after ripping open their many presents and after Marcus and his Dad had stayed up long into the night putting up a trampoline 'from Santa for being succccch good children'. I remember feeling sick about their ungratefulness and more sick from the realisation that this was something they had learnt from me. Not from anything I had said. I am the master at quoting Sunday school answers but from my actions which I know were a reflection of my heart.

So this year, knowing I didn't want a repeat of Christmas's past some things have changed.

Firstly we have ditched Santa. GASP away, I know for some that makes me the biggest kill joy but to be honest he was just getting in the way. Lucy is at the age of asking questions and I was finding myself telling lies upon lies to make Santa credible. I was doing my best to not rob them of what I thought was every child's right of having this dream of Santa coming down the chimney to reward them with presents, while also teaching about Christmas been a time where we celebrate Jesus' birth and how God's son came into the world, born to Mary in a stable.

I didn't want Lucy growing up, realising that Santa wasn't true and then not knowing what truth to believe that her mother had told her. In the end it wasn't even a big thing. They watched a veggie tales movie about St Nicholas (the real man) who at Christmas time gave to orphans and those in need secretly so as not to blow his own trumpet.  He lived a long time ago so Lucy asked how old he would be now. I explained that he had died and because he was such a good man that people had created Santa Claus as a way of remembering him. That Santa was just a person dressed up pretending to be St Nicholas. She nodded then asked who had drank the milk at Christmas and left the footprints. I told her it was Daddy and I, pretending. She laughed and that was that. She does know not to tell other kids the 'truth' about the man in red and to leave their parents to tell them one day. But yay, one less thing to cloud Christmas in our house this year.

Secondly although I love the idea of advent calendars, I'm not doing one this year. For the simple reason that they stress me out. All that counting down, the build up of anticipation, the fights that occur nightly over who gets to open it, the stress of planning family activities to do. This year, I just haven't done one and it's really really nice. I have thought that once school finishes we might to a little week long something to count down. We'll see.

For presents this year the kids are getting 4 each. Something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read. That's it and I have been collecting over the year with this in mind so now on December 8th I'm all done and sorted. I will also fill a stocking for them at the end of their bed with some nice summer fruit, a box of fancy cereal and maybe if they're lucky a can of fizzy because to them, a can of fizzy is the ultimate treat and despite all the changes I'm not a complete Grinch.

We don't have a tree this year- but this is purely practical with open homes, a butt shuffler and knowing we are off on holiday the day after Christmas. We will do fairy lights, and next year the tree will be back up but In the essence of declutting Christmas, not having a tree has proved a goodie.

Lastly, I wanted to make it simple. To unwrap Christmas from all that we had made it to get to our hearts. I have talked long and hard with the kids this year about being grateful, about been aware of how lucky they are and the need for them to be like St Nicholas and to give where they can to others. To see for themselves that they have no need for more STUFF but to find joy in giving.  Lucy has been saving up her chore money to donate a chicken to a village in Africa and Oliver wants to bake cookies to drop into the Police Station to thank them for the thankless job they do in looking after our city and keeping us safe.

I also brought an amazing book that I have been reading through with them each night this week. It's called "The Jesus Storybook Bible- every story whispers his name, "by Sally Lloyd Jones. They LOVE it and it is brilliant in the way it tells the stories of the Bible as one big Story. A story where at the centre, there is a baby, the child whom everything would depend. From Noah, to Moses to King David, every story whispers his name. Jesus is like the missing piece in a puzzle - the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together. In a way it has been our advent calendar and for the first time I am getting it.

My eyes filled with tears tonight as I read about Adam and Eve being sent from the garden and how that broke God's heart because that was not what he wanted for us. But that wasn't the end.  To quote:

God loved his children too much to let the story end there, Even thought he knew he would suffer, God had a plan- a magnificent dream. One day, he would get his children back. One day, he would make the world their perfect home again. And one day, he would wipe away every tear from their eyes.  

You see, no matter what, in spite of everything, God would love his children- with a Never Stopping, Never Giving up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love. And though they would forget him, and run from him, deep in their hearts, God's children would miss him always and long for him- lost children yearning for their home.  

Before they left the garden, God whispered a promise to Adam and Eve: "It will not always be so! I will come to rescue you! And when I do, I'm going to do battle against the snake. I'll get rid of the sin and the dark and the sadness you let in here. I'm coming back for you!" And he would. One day, God himself would come.

And as I looked up with my blurry tear filled eyes and saw my children in their bunks, hanging off every word, spellbound by the story and seeing it all click into place in their brains like it had mine- that this was what Christmas was all about. This was the reason Jesus was born 2000 odd years ago. Click click click suddenly it all makes sense.

Wow and to think I have wasted Decembers gone trying to make it all pretty. I don't know what this Christmas morning will look like in our house but I know our hearts are on a journey of gratefulness and for now, the inner beauty of that is all the Christmas glitter our home needs.