keeping the focus

the wonder of Christmas is apparent with our little fellow.  he's infatuated by the tree, the lights, and the manger scene.  we tell him about God coming to earth as Jesus and what an amazing miracle it was and continues to be.  dax loves to hear the story and can now say the name "Jesus".  this past saturday we took him to see a walk through living nativity.  dax really liked going from scene to scene and watching the story unfold.  you could see the curiosity in his eyes.  no scene lasts longer than 3 minutes, so the attention span of a two year old is rightfully captured.  in the final scene we find Jesus lying in manger with Mary and Joseph surrounded by the wise men and angels.  will took him up close after most people had gone ahead so that he could be sure he saw the baby laying there.  his favorite comment when he sees something impressive is to say "oh wow" and he said it when he saw the baby there. 

with the hurry of the season and the previous desire to beat myself up for not pulling my ish together to do the elf on the shelf, the advent calendar (chock full of things to go, see, taste, and do), and other assorted pre-Christmas activities - we've decided to focus on the traditions we hope will keep the spirit of the season in our son's heart.  sure, we took him to see the lighting of the local town tree, sat him on santa's lap for a photo, and will take him to a parade - but showing him this living nativity, telling him the story at home with our various nativity scenes, rejoicing in songs about Jesus' birth, and praying in anticipation of the anniversary of the birth of our savior is what we're most happy to share with his little heart.  

i struggled with it last year.  i never bought the darn elf, and ended up being okay with that - but had every intention of doing the advent calendar. i'd gotten one as a gift from my mom and filled each pouch with star cut out activities to do with dax over the days leading up to Christmas.  i thought these things would make beautiful memories for him.  but then i realized the "stressed" out over worked mommy was probably going to leave more of a lasting impression than the activity time itself.  so i canceled the advent calendar as well.

this year is proving to be much more relaxed.  we've casually done things as we were able, and if dax couldn't hang because he was tired or just busy being a two year old it was no skin off my back.  but for the most part we've done lots cuddling - just the three of us, as well as lots of singing and dancing around the kitchen and living room and rejoiced in the birth of our saving grace.

he's tender, he's impressionable, and he's listening.  these are the things he'll remember and we hope he'll always carry with him.