Just The Mays Family: Christmas Fun

It has been awhile. Christmas keeping us busy. I can't wait for a break after Christmas. (Everything will be closed. The library, the Women's Center, everything!) Anyway, we have done lots of fun stuff so far.

Of course we have looked at lights SEVERAL times. We went out to eat last Tuesday and then went driving around. We ended up in the middle of nowhere. Sam passed out after awhile and Jessie and I got to talk. I Love our long car rides together. Unfortunately, we don't see too many people around here with Christmas lights. The houses are very sporadic. We also went to the Christmas house that Christina mentioned, three times-so far. Once we went the night we were driving around. Sam was even more excited this year than she was last. And then we went with my Mom and Aunt and little brother after the Christmas parade. And then my Dad after Sam's recital.

Then last night we went to go see the dancing lights in Lafayette. Very pretty. We went with my Mom, Aunt, little brother, and Jessie's friend, Josh, and his son.

Sam was also in the Christmas Parade, two this year. She is a NUT! She is always the only one standing up on the float dancing. By time we finished she was sore from waving her arms in the air. After the Ringgold parade, we went to our church because it is in the middle of down town Ringgold-same place as the parade. They were doing free Santa pictures and selling baked goods, drinks, and popcorn to raise money for the youth trip. We went to see if they needed help with anything, but instead ended up with some drinks and snacks. And although Sam knows Santa is not real, she likes to pretend, and so she said she wanted her picture made with him. HUGE mistake!!! She went up to him, stood in front of him, pointed at him and said, "I don't need to ask you for anything because God is going to give me a baby sister. And guess what, I can't tell you the secret that YOU'RE NOT REAL!" I was so embarrassed. Santa didn't know what to do with her. He did his routine, "Well, have you been good this year?" Etc Etc. Oh, it was awful, I am not sure if we will ever let her see Santa again.
Speaking of dance, Sam's recital was awesome! She did really well this year, butter than last year. She was really into it at ALL of her performances this year, and when she watched the Troup girls perform she was mesmerized. She is determined to be "one of those girls with the red dresses and black belts." Because they are such great dancers. She is also determined to win a trophy. I think she will definitely go far with this dance thing as long as Jessie and I support her, which we will. She is already talking about her goals. After the recital we went with my Dad, Jessie's Mom, and my Aunt to Logan's to celebrate. (Except Sam wanted McDonalds, so we picked her up a Happy Meal on the way. Ha Ha.)
Here is the great news though, Jessie has been able to make it to BOTH her mall shows and one of her parades this year! And of course her recital, because he asked off for that day. Sam was extremely excited.

Friday was the Christmas party for Parent's as Teachers. I was surprised at how well planned out it was! They usually have good group meetings, but they have never had so many activities at the parties. They had different stations. One was coloring pages. The other was decorating Christmas cookies. And the last one was making ornaments, which were super cute! They also did pictures with Santa, but Sam said No! She started crying, which shocked me, and I am not sure why. I think she may have been embarrassed that everybody was asking her and laughing at the way she was acting. She is sensitive about that. She is very aware of someone talking about her or laughing at her. They had refreshments-cookies and a "hot chocolate bar" which had chocolate kisses and sprinkles and such to put in your hot chocolate. Anyway, they also gave each kid a really cool gift too, so that was neat.

Aside from the "activities," we have also read books about Christmas, went to Christmas themed story time where she got to string berries and popcorn, and made some ornaments, along with decorating our tree. And watched some Christmas movies. I saw a Charlie Brown Christmas for the first time, and I think it had a great, simple message.

We have also done small things like read stories about the birth of Jesus and when we go look at Christmas lights, she just adores the manger scenes. And I make it a point to ask her, "Now WHY is it that THIS Baby was so important?" And she is able to tell me why. Even if she does not fully understand the importance, the seed is planted. I just don't want her to think Christmas is all about the gifts she will get. (But trust me, she is excited about that part too.)

I also want to make an emphasis on giving. She was going to make something for everyone in the family this year, but I just don't think she will have the patience to make everyone something, and that means we would have to do it a little at a time, and it might be too late to start now-depending on what we have to do this week and next. My Mom had a great idea. She took Brennon to the Dollar Tree to shop for everyone...May do that.

While I love looking at Christmas lights and such, I hate that everything is commercialized now. So I tried to do as many activities as I could that were Christ centered. Aside from church, we quite a few things. We did an advent chain. On each of the links there was one of two things. It either had an activity like Christmas Parade, Recital, Christmas movies, etc. Or it had a Bible verse. Sam is excited every morning to take a new link off the chain. (I considered doing something like this throughout the year that have the story of Easter or just different Bible stories.) Anyway, she is at the age where she is understanding the verses-as we talk about them, and based on what she knows, she is predicting what part of the story she thinks the verse is leading up to.

We have two things left that we plan to do before Christmas. Wednesday we are going to Christina's for dinner one night and to celebrate Christmas. We are having Tacos...YUM! And I am going to bake something with Sam. And Sam is very excited to give Grace and Brentley their gifts. (She got them both night lights with characters on them. She picked them out completely by themselves, and she asked if she could get them both one, I couldn't say no. :)

Another thing we are going to do this Sunday, since it was canceled yesterday due to rain, is Christmas at the Farm. I am really looking forward to that. It is a free event that a church is having this year. They will have lights and hay rides and everything, and the part I am going for...I think they are having a LIVE Nativity scene! (A few years back a church in our area used to set up a town that looked like Bethlehem, and they had people acting out the story of Jesus and they had people talk and eat thing relevant to that time period. But they stopped that the year before I got pregnant, and I have no clue why.) I have been trying to find something like that ever since, and I am excited that we found one this year because she is getting to where she understands things. I will definitely be posting about that too.