Thankfully, this one sleeps beautifully through the night.
Early December was filled with introducing Charlie to our family friends, our church friends, and the like. We also began family therapy to increase (hopefully) our bonding with him. And of course, Christmas season was quickly upon us so there was much excitement in the air. The kids had holiday parties and holiday concerts, and soon an incredibly long winter break was upon us.
Speaking of Christmas, we had a bit of a difficult time with Charlie, because this child (like most, I suppose) absolutely idolized Santa, the Elf of the Shelf, and the like. It was actually quite a rude awakening I think, when we had this exchange one night:
Me: Charlie, do you know why you shouldn't lie to Mama?
Charlie: Because then Santa won't come?
Me: Charlie, I couldn't care less if Santa ever stepped foot in this house.
His eyes got quite wide at that. How could I mean that? (I went on to explain to him that Jesus IS truth, and the devil, Jesus's enemy is the father of lies. I want my son to be more like Jesus than His enemy!) But how could I possibly not care about Santa Claus?
Thus this past Christmas season we became quite intentional - even more than usual - in reminding our new son that Christmas is about Jesus, not Santa or an elf or a snowman or any of that. Sure, we include those things in our celebrations, but they are minimized. We do our best to keep Jesus front and center, and this year we worked extra hard at it.
Instead of Elf of the Shelf, we discovered The Shepherd on the Search. It was interesting. We weren't very disciplined at doing activities every day - I never am with advent fun because it's just too busy a season. We purchased and read books that showed even Santa pointing to Jesus. And we sought out opportunities to teach and worship Jesus in our day-to-day activities.
Were we successful? I hope so, overall. Probably not perfectly. I expect a similar conflict next year - or, even sooner actually, as Easter is around the corner. But that's okay. God did not bring me into this child's life to teach him about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, but about Himself and His Son, our Savior. My primary responsibility is to teach this child that nothing else in this life is remotely as important as Jesus.
In all, we had a wonderful Christmas. Mom and Deb were able to come to Colorado, thankfully. They got to meet Charlie and pour into him and we had a great holiday where everyone was spoiled rotten, as usual. We closed out the year with Charlie's attendance at a birthday party for one of Ro's coworker's kiddos - his first birthday party, I believe - and he received great compliments on his behavior. Charlie went to bed early as usual on New Year's Eve and Ro and I weren't far behind - wiped out as usual.
2016 might have been the most surprising year I'd ever had. We had much to look for in 2017.
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