Making the yuletide gay and stuff.

The beginning of each week starts slowly but by the end we are in a flurry of activity and heavily into our lists of things to do.  November flew by so fast I am trying my hardest to savor every moment of December and make it fun.  Sometimes I get sidetracked by how busy things are and trying to keep all the balls in the air but I forget what a fun time of year this is for the kids.
We went to our church Christmas party....I have always thought that the visit by Santa at a church party was kind of, ironic.  But Santa and I had the same shoes on so I guess I didn't mind so much.

I sat there and watched all the kids take a turn and wondered, does anyone enjoy sitting on Santa's lap?  Because 99% of them try really hard not to make eye contact.  They simply know that they have to answer a couple of token questions in order to receive the candy cane.

And then I realized that we don't typically do the Santa thing.  In all honesty, this was the last time that my kids sat on Santa's lap.  You wanna guess who that is? It's Haley.  Do you see the picture above where her legs are now solidly touching the floor?  It's been a while.  The problem is that my kids can't seem to decide if they believe in him or not.  I really really hate when they ask me questions about it because I cannot look them in the face and perpetuate such a ridiculous lie even though I know it is fun and magical and all that.  We do the meta-conversations about it...."Is Santa real?" "Well, what do you think?" kind of deal.  I just can't do it.  Plus,  not to be too prideful and all that, but do I really want some fictional person to get the credit for a gift that was well thought out and planned for? The answer is no, I do not.  I want all the credit.  "Yeah, I know you.  I love you.  I make you happy with material things."  (On a complete side note: I love Christmas.  I love the season.  I love all the remembering the birth of Christ and I have no problem keeping that sacred and special and separate from the fact that I also really love celebrating the very commercial part of Christmas.  I mean, the fact that we celebrate this pagan rooted holiday not at the actual time of Christ's birth says that we somewhat support the commercial, secular side of it, right?  We find a good balance I think.)

And then we danced around a Scandinavian Christmas tree.  Spencer and Sho went with us to a Scandinavian celebration of Santa Lucia Day.  I have such nostalgic memories of this as a child.  Listening to the program this year gave me a lump in my throat as I remember singing these songs and being in such awe at how special and beautiful it was.  When I was little I remember the feeling of wanting so badly to be Lucia in her beautiful white dress with red sash and the crown of candles. Having my parents in Sweden right now has reawakened a deep desire to be connected with this line of our family.  We have such amazing heritage on both sides (Clark's and mine) from Sweden.  We have members of our ancestry that played such an enormous role in where and how our lives are now.  It is rich and beautiful and fun and I hurt to think that these traditions could die with my generation and in my own little family because I am one more generation removed from it.  How fast do you think I could pick up Swedish? My brother tried to teach me once and all I remember is how to say "I can drive a car but I cannot drive a house."  But even dancing around this tree with my girls I remembered some of the songs enough to sing along and at the very least to feel a part of something wonderful and important and fun.
Mo and Dad, aren't you proud? I danced around and acted like a frog with no ears and no tail, and a pig with ears and a tail. (And I was hot and had to apologize to the stranger whose hand I was holding for being sweaty.)  I remembered enough to tell the girls about the Tompten sneaking around and the table and eating food.  But I especially liked the songs where we were acting out 'who know's what' and pointing at each other and stuff.  Good Swedish times.

 It was so beautiful.  Maybe later I will post about our own celebration of Lucia Day (which is today, December 13th.) I made cinnamon roles and improvised my own crown out of felt.  It'll do.

 And with that we are enjoying the Christmas season...being near some family, a pile of firewood outside, candy cane hot chocolate (thanks Amy!) lots of bare feet and one shiny bald head.