Christmas at the Wright's

Every year for Thanksgiving we have two family celebrations; one with my family and one with Dana's.  This year it was nice that both family celebrations were within thirty miles of one another.  Normally that isn't the case.  We so enjoy getting to see our families and this year was an especially fun time as we had great nieces and nephews that we hadn't seen in quite some time come up from TX.

On Thursday we normally go to Dana's family Thanksgiving.  We eat tons of turkey, honey-baked ham and brisket.  Then we eat tons of pecan pie or various other desserts.  Then on Friday we go to my parents' house and do it all over again!  And at each gathering we sit and visit for hours, retell old stories and laugh until we forget about how much we just ate.  It's always so much fun!  We're always so worn out when it's over but not quite ready to go home.  We're only glad to be home when we finally crawl into our own beds for the night.

However, at Christmas we stay home and take time to enjoy the holiday as a family unit.  We try to make Christmas as special a day as possible... because it is the day we set aside to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus.

Honestly, we don't get into "Christmas" that much.  We don't go overboard on decoration.  In fact, up until the past few years we didn't have a tree at Christmas.  We would normally set up a nativity and place the gifts around that.  I always thought that was much more in line with the way Christmas is told us in scripture, although there is much debate as to the timing of the arrival of the wise men and the manger.  But we'll leave that discussion for another time.  Suffice to say we try to make Christmas about Christ.

One thing we have done for many years is to make use of Adorenaments.  I don't think these are made anymore but you might find them on Amazon or Ebay.  They are a wonderful way to help your children focus on just who Jesus is in the days leading up to Christmas.  There are twelve Adorenaments (ornaments), each one with a different name for Jesus.  Each name has a scripture reference.  So starting about now (the 12th), and each night up until Christmas eve, we place one Adorenament on the tree and read the story associated with that name for Jesus.

Also, and I'll probably catch it for this but here goes... we don't do Santa Claus.  We decided when Lindsey was a baby that we wanted to be faithful to our children in both big and small things.  We have always believed and done our best to demonstrate consistency with them.  When we tell them something we have always done our best to make certain we follow through on that so they have no reason to doubt us and therefore no reason not to trust us.  We decided that, as seemingly harmless as Santa Claus is, it was not going to work with the decision we had made.  Our kids aren't warped and they don't miss out on Christmas because of this.  In fact, I believe they appreciate Christmas much more being able to see and discern the real meaning of Christmas from the Christmas all the retail outlets would have them believe (if you get my drift).

So if you ask Lacey what Santa got her for Christmas and get a blank stare, it's not that she doesn't understand what you're asking.  It's that she knows Santa didn't get her anything but doesn't want to spoil it for you. ;)

Micah 5:2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting."