Today was good. We opened our stockings last night and each boy got to open their "large" gift. Cole got a Rody - which is like an industrial, blow-up horse for bouncing and riding... tho, he wasn't so impressed. It takes a bit more balance than he's apparently got at this point :( My bad! Asher got a really nice tricycle! He's struggling a little with steering and pedaling at the same time, but I'm sure he'll have it down in no time.
Early this morning, Nate, Mary and Analeigh came over (mom and dad came upstairs) and the gift exchange started. The Brewers came around 9am and then the other Armstrongs (Matt, Shaana and Grace) came shortly after that. Nate and Mary had another family get-together so they had to leave early, but the rest of us finished up all the gift stuff and enjoyed many traditional Armstrong Christmas day foods - including Cinnamon Rolls and Valley of the Son soup - yum!
I do love Christmas. And I don't want to sound negative. I can't help but think about all the tradition we participate in without knowing the reasons behind it. I know that Jesus wasn't actually born on (or even really close to) Christmas day. And most Christmas traditions have been altered from pagan holidays - I think the worst of all this is when the Pope made Christmas Day an official holiday, encouraging "pagans" to become Christians and convincing them that they could still participate in all their pagan traditions, only as worshiping Christ, instead of worshiping the gods of agriculture and fertility... kinda twisted, not exactly a solid way to "convince" people to serve the Lord - "here, you don't have to give up your super fun holiday to follow Christ, just alter it!". Anyway, I've just been giving all of this some thought. I don't have any solid conclusions. I don't know that I am going to go all puritan and get rid of our fake Christmas tree, but it certainly feels wrong to tell people that Jesus is the reason for this season... because this season was made up for other reasons than Him. Jesus is the ONLY reason for Joy, and that's what we remember at this time. But as for all the other random traditions - gift giving, caroling, stockings, tree - well, I'm just not sure of it's place.
This year, we did spoil the boys a bit more than we were comfortable with - it's too easy to do! It was the first year we actually had some extra money to kinda go crazy with. But in America, people look down on you if you don't give gifts to your kids, like you're depriving them! Let me tell you folks, there is a huge WORLD of deprived children, and if my boys didn't get one single gift, they would still not be anywhere near that class of deprived children. I don't want my kids to think that Christmas is about getting gifts. I also don't want them to be deceived of it's origins. Is there a way to have compromise in this without violating my conscience? Good question! Guess we'll see next year ;)
Hope you all had a happy holidays and that ultimately, Jesus reminded you of His incredible, intense, all-giving love for you!
Early this morning, Nate, Mary and Analeigh came over (mom and dad came upstairs) and the gift exchange started. The Brewers came around 9am and then the other Armstrongs (Matt, Shaana and Grace) came shortly after that. Nate and Mary had another family get-together so they had to leave early, but the rest of us finished up all the gift stuff and enjoyed many traditional Armstrong Christmas day foods - including Cinnamon Rolls and Valley of the Son soup - yum!
I do love Christmas. And I don't want to sound negative. I can't help but think about all the tradition we participate in without knowing the reasons behind it. I know that Jesus wasn't actually born on (or even really close to) Christmas day. And most Christmas traditions have been altered from pagan holidays - I think the worst of all this is when the Pope made Christmas Day an official holiday, encouraging "pagans" to become Christians and convincing them that they could still participate in all their pagan traditions, only as worshiping Christ, instead of worshiping the gods of agriculture and fertility... kinda twisted, not exactly a solid way to "convince" people to serve the Lord - "here, you don't have to give up your super fun holiday to follow Christ, just alter it!". Anyway, I've just been giving all of this some thought. I don't have any solid conclusions. I don't know that I am going to go all puritan and get rid of our fake Christmas tree, but it certainly feels wrong to tell people that Jesus is the reason for this season... because this season was made up for other reasons than Him. Jesus is the ONLY reason for Joy, and that's what we remember at this time. But as for all the other random traditions - gift giving, caroling, stockings, tree - well, I'm just not sure of it's place.
This year, we did spoil the boys a bit more than we were comfortable with - it's too easy to do! It was the first year we actually had some extra money to kinda go crazy with. But in America, people look down on you if you don't give gifts to your kids, like you're depriving them! Let me tell you folks, there is a huge WORLD of deprived children, and if my boys didn't get one single gift, they would still not be anywhere near that class of deprived children. I don't want my kids to think that Christmas is about getting gifts. I also don't want them to be deceived of it's origins. Is there a way to have compromise in this without violating my conscience? Good question! Guess we'll see next year ;)
Hope you all had a happy holidays and that ultimately, Jesus reminded you of His incredible, intense, all-giving love for you!
Post a Comment