Merry Christmas Eve

My entire family is here, and I'm so content. Everyone is where they should be. We're watching "The Sound of Music" for the umpteenth time...and yes, we're singing along. The house has the feel of family and togetherness, and we've all just been enjoying being together. As I've mentioned before, this is the first Christmas we have all been together in quite some time since I often was in Colorado working on Christmas, and my sister lived in France, Switzerland, and Egypt for some time too. The last time we were all together on Christmas was 5 years ago (we think...we can't quite remember). Anyway, it's awesome to be together, and I'm very thankful. Our family has been through a lot (those of you who know us well understand) but the Lord has worked in amazing ways to bring our family back together again over the past few years and we're closer and stronger for it. Sure, we still have our disagreements and differences like any normal family, but at the end of the day, we're the Wilkies and we love each other no matter what. Even in our darkest times, we knew that.

As I think back on Christmases growing up, I remember all our traditions... we had quite a few! We would drive to the Penland Christmas tree farm together singing Christmas carols on the way there in the car (and the way back), tromp all over the field for the perfect tree, and after what seemed like forever....finally agree on one. Dad would cut it down (with a little help from us) and we'd walk back to the front of the field for hot chocolate stirred with candy canes. When we got home, we'd pull out the boxes of ornaments. Each year we alternated between who set up the Nativity set and who put the star on the tree. The Nativity set was porcelain and revered... and great thought was put into the setup by either me or my sister. We also had ornaments that belonged to us and we hung them on the tree. Many of these ornaments are on my tree now...and they range from an ornament made from wrapping paper from my first birthday to ones gathered from our trips out west with our Sprout 'N Shout ministry. When I look at the ornaments today, I am flooded with good memories and thankfulness for such a rich upbringing.

My sister and I have always been taught to serve others, so we participated in the Angel Tree and in Operation Christmas Child alongside our parents. It is better to give than to receive. I can't wait until tomorrow morning when I get to give the gifts that I carefully selected to my loved ones. I love shopping for that perfect gift that I know that person will love. I put a lot of time and effort into choosing gifts. I think my sister and I truly believe giving is better than getting because of the example my parents consistently set for us. They are the first to show up when someone is in need. I remember my mom cooking extra meals and when we'd ask why she was cooking so much food, she'd tell us that someone in our church was sick or just had a baby, and was just making a meal to drop off. When we were older, we were involved in the preparation and delivery of these meals. We also volunteered as a family with the men's homeless shelter, and served Thanksgiving dinner to those in need.My parents are very involved in service ministry even to this day so they continue to lead by example even though we're adults and out of the house. I can't even begin to say how impressed I am with how my dad has spent the first part of his retirement... building houses in New Orleans, going to Kenya, going to Peru, teaching kindergarten and first grade for teachers out on maternity leave, volunteering in those classrooms when the teachers return, etc. Dad doesn't get ALL the credit - my mom has supported and stood by him in all those efforts even when it meant he was gone for some time overseas.

My parents really focused on the real meaning of Christmas for my sister and I, and I remember the Advent tradition at home. We knew that the greatest gift we could ever receive was the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ because our parents made sure of it.

The point of this post is that we want Lily to have special Christmas traditions, but most importantly we want her to know Jesus. We want her to know that Christmas is not about presents or about Santa Claus but about the ultimate sacrifice. I don't talk about my faith very much on this blog because I am a person who only shares when asked. I am not a preachy or "in your face" Christian, but all of my friends are well aware of my faith and value system. As parents, we now have a small taste of what it must have been like for our Father to send His one and only Son to die for the sins of the world so that we could know Him. The most important thing that we will ever do as parents is to raise her to know the Lord as her Savior. How we live our lives sets the example.

We haven't quite decided on the exact traditions (since we still have some time) but we have decided that Lily (and our future children) will not be taught to believe in Santa Claus. She will be told that he is a fictional character based on a person (St. Nicholas).

Why? No, we don't think that teaching children to believe in Santa is dark and twisted (and I don't resent my parents for doing the Santa Claus thing with us)... we have pretty simple and straightforward reasons.

• We want our family to focus on Jesus and giving to others during the Christmas season. We're considering only purchasing 3 gifts for her when she is older as a representation of the three gifts brought by the Three Kings to the manger. Again, we have some time to iron out exactly what our tradition and teachings will be.
• We don't want Lily to think that she is getting presents based on good behavior. Our Heavenly Father gave us the ultimate gift in Jesus. That gift wasn't given because we were good. It was given because of His Grace and because He loves us without condition of being "bad or good."
• We want Lily to learn thankfulness. If she believes she's receiving gifts from Santa, it isn't really teaching her to be thankful to anyone. How do you really thank a magical man who flies around in the sky? Lily will also be taught to write thank you notes to every person who takes the time to send her a gift (and not just at Christmas!)
• We want Lily to learn to serve and to give to others ... and put others before herself. We haven't decided quite how we will teach her this, but it will likely be participation in a ministry of some sort like the Angel Tree where she chooses a gift for a child in need.

So, no Santa Claus for us...

And I'll leave you with some photos taken tonight on Christmas Eve.

Lily's handprint at 2 weeks old

Lily's footprint at 3 weeks old

Lily loves her Gramie (and the feeling is mutual!)