Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we headed out to Stoney River with the McSwains for dinner and then came home to wait for Santa!  Madison Claire said goodbye to Howie (who made the trip with us to Cincinnati and Nashville) and we tried to explain to her that she wouldn't see him until next Christmas.  She doesn't quite understand that and still wakes up some mornings asking where Howie is :).  We got all of the gifts out in front of the tree and I had a few moments of feeling overwhelmed at how much "stuff" there was.  We truly are so blessed.  My kids have more toys than they could ever play with, more clothes than they will ever be able to wear, and yet here was more.  I said a prayer that night that my kids would have grateful hearts and that they would learn to be good "sharers" and "givers away" (I'm sure that's not a real word, but you get my drift).  How do you teach about the birth of Jesus amidst all of the "stuff"?  I'm not really sure yet, but Madison Claire has been able to digest that we celebrate Jesus's birthday at Christmas and that his mom is Mary. She will also tell you pretty quickly after that "my teachers say it's not my birthday" which leads us to think that when they were celebrating Jesus's birthday at school, Madison Claire made some comment about it being her birthday too and the teachers telling her it wasn't.  Too funny.  Hopefully next year she will be able to comprehend a little more than that :)