Riding the Reindeer

What are reindeer? My 2 have no idea. We took H & W to the galleria (CRAZY place, not sure what we were thinking) to ride the Christmas carousel since they have the reindeer out. They both LOVE a carousel ride, all smiles the whole nauseating ride. And those bright smiles make all the traffic, rain, and 10 billion shoppers worth all the trouble of getting there. The things we will do for our kids!!









He was fascinated with seeing in the mirror the whole ride.


Santa is coming early to our house since we will be with our family over Christmas. We haven't put much focus on Santa this month, just the fact this it's Jesus' birthday. But I think she is understanding that Santa brings presents and started talking about him and asking questions. And I got carried away and excited answering her questions with probably some not-so-truthful answers, and then Nathan called me out on it last night!! Our pastor's wife came to our SS class a few weeks ago and gave us these tips about keeping your perspective w/Santa:
1. Keep the main thing, the main thing (JESUS)
2. Rules without a relationship only lead to rebellion (not so much about Santa but just a good tip)
3. Do not lie! (like make up a bunch of lies about Santa-I'm finding that may be hard to do when she asks questions about Santa. She said answer their questions with a question-how do you think he comes down the chimney? why do you ask? put it back on them and let them use their imagination
4. Give them more do's than don'ts in their life.
It's always nice to have someone's perspective that has more experience raising kids/grandkids than we do. Our plan is to have fun with Santa, but keep our focus on the only reason for Christmas. Parenting is hard. We have so much to learn. I'm thankful for good godly models and mentors around us!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

H-35 mos
W-10 mos