This afternoon we had our home Christmas celebration. We ate a lunch of salmon and then spent some time talking to Fuller why we get presents. It wasn’t very easy since his eye was on the prize- opening his presents- but eventually he seemed to understand the “Jesus is the reason we get presents” concept.

Damon and I prefer to make strides in helping Fuller understand the religious concept of Christmas instead of confusing him by insisting there is a white bearded toy delivery guy who is real. I grew up with the Santa figure in my life as a “nudge, nudge, wink, wink” kind of thing- we never thought he was real.

Bob said something funny the other day, something along the lines of “why should Santa get all the credit?” And while it was funny, it makes so much sense. Why can’t I expect my son to thank me and know how hard his parents worked to make the presents part of Christmas possible? Besides, keeping up lies is too much work. I would prefer to start with the truth and later on explain the myth of Santa as woven through time and folklore. I enjoy a good Santa story (Miracle on 34th Street is one of my top favorite Christmas movies), but I know the truth.

Fuller opened his gifts today, gifts we brought back from Lake Martin. We made sure he knew who each gift was from. Cars and Spider-Man were big on the gift list from relatives, and he got an exciting amount of books (two about trains!).

While it was small, it was meaningful and I hope a great gateway for Fuller to truly understand what happens on December 25th.

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