Christmas Eve Gift

This is our third Christmas to celebrate with the children, and we are excited. As the children get older, they are understanding more and more. They are so precious!!! When we are in the store, it is hilarious to see the response when people ask the kids if they are "ready for Santa to come?" and Diego chimes out LOUDLY "We don't celebrate Santa! We celebrate Jesus' birthday!" The person usually apologizes, but I think it's funny. I usually explain that we try to keep the focus on Christ and want to emphasize the importance of Him and what He's done for us. It usually leads into another conversation... and once, I was even asked if I was of a different religion. I thought that was interesting... I just told the guy no, but I wished I would have told him I was a "Christ follower," but I only went on to explain how the focus has changed in so many and things seem so commercialized and for us, Jesus is the reason!

ANYWAY- TONIGHT, we allowed the children to have one gift. We didn't get a lot for the kids, they have 3 presents and 1 family gift (some boxes have more than one thing in them). Well, one of the gifts that they each got the same thing- was a Trapper Keeper! We got each of them one, each a different color to avoid confusion. I found these for like $1.50 at Staples after the school started. These are like $8-9 now (In my day they were probably $3-5). So, I told Ben when I got them, we could save them for Christmas gifts and teach the kids to take notes in church! Now, initially, they may just be using it to occupy self, but hopefully, they will begin to notice how many times they hear Jesus' name or the word God or whatever....

So, what was their response? OMGoodness! They were so proud of their books! They were so cute! Inside them we bought them folders (the boys- spiderman and super heros, tatiana- a monkey), some looseleaf paper, pencil pouch, and notebook. They were so grateful! Andrew and Tatiana ran around in the house looking for pencils to put inside. Diego wanted to go get his workbook to put in it and begin doing it! How sweet!

Tomorrow is the BIG party for Jesus! They are very excited! Much more than last year... I think this is making it more fun! Hopefully, we will have pics tomorrow!

Merry Christmas, and God bless!