Well, you will be glad to hear that Ellie's new toys are being put to good use thanks to Harrison :) My cousin, Tara, once mentioned that the second child's toys are always "broken in" by the first child; I didn't totally understand at the time but now I know exactly what she means. Harrison rides the car all around the house (did I mention that my parents never bought me a car growing up? Deprived, I know), carries around the baby dolls, steals Mrs. Potato Head's accessories, hides Ellie's new books behind the entertainment center, hooks his train cars up to the giraffe cart, and monopolizes the car toy. He's delightful :)
We got our first stick on the ground snow a few days ago. I am used to snow but not the permanent ice and cold wind that comes with it here on the East Coast. We recently met with our Bishop for tithing settlement and he asked if we were enjoying the area. I made some off-handed comment about the winter and he asked what part of winter I didn't like. Hmmm, let's see: the cold weather, the snow, the outrageous heating costs, need I go on? (and yes, I did list all of those for him). Riding his bike to and from work this week has inspired Josh to look at faculty job postings in warm climates (and I promise I haven't intentionally done anything to encourage him).
We put up our Christmas tree last Tuesday evening. Harrison was so excited to put up his new sailboat ornament and his train and dog ornament from year's past. As soon as the tree was up, he started decorating it and so the tree never officially got "fluffed" or whatever you call the process of fussing with the branches on a fake tree. Both kids have been really good about leaving the tree alone for the most part.
I am such a hypocrite. I always said I would avoid perpetuating the Santa myth in my home. I think this was probably the main hang-up Josh had with marrying me :) He is a pro-Santa myth person and comes from a Santa family; I on the other hand, am not. I was adamant that I would not lie to my children about gifts coming from a mythical person (how does that teach fiscal accountability?). Well, I'm a hypocrite because it is downright fun to see how excited Harrison is about Christmas and Santa. How do you not play into it? Santa is everywhere. In the stores, on our tree in the form of ornaments, in Christmas books, in the form of blowup decorations on the neighbor's lawn. So how do you not perpetuate the myth without being a total party pooper? I don't know so that's why I am a total hypocrite.
Time to go wrap some presents and write "from Santa" on them...
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
the hypocrite
Posted by Kristen at 11:32 AM
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6 comments:
Aahh...I wasn't too fond of the Santa myth either. I wanted the credit for talking your Dad into to spending money on presents for you kids (well, I was willing to share the credit with your Dad, but not with some fictitious guy and a bunch of little elf persons. I'm afraid I fell victim to the fun stuff too---and besides, I could get you kids to behave for one month out of the year, by threatening you that Santa would't bring you anything but coal. (But MY grandson is perfect and does NOT need threats to make him behave :>)
LOL about the Santa thing!! And yes, I totally understand the oldest child breaking in the new toys. We're dealing with that right now!! :)
I just have to say your kids are adorable!! :)
We kind of do a middle-ground thing- neither of us want to do the Santa thing so we share credit with Santa. He works "with" us. Trevor writes a letter each year, and this year was the first time we went to take pictures. We just don't hype it up as much as some people do. Instead, the big deal is the countdown and what the family does together to get ready for Christmas.
LOL! Great post. :)
It never crossed my mind that Santa was stealing "credit" from me. I always thought the season was about giving, not receiving credit for hard work.
If my child is happy, then I am happy. The circumstances under which that occurred, I couldn't care less.
Does this mean that you don't have gifts given from one child to the other (H to E and E to H)? Isn't that the same? H taking the credit for your hard work, and visa-versa.
In our house we have decided that one, fairly significant, gift comes from Santa, the rest come from us. We feel this a good blend, and will ease the transition when the time comes that the cat is out of the bag, someday.
Just my $0.02.
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