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Happy Friday! Hope your first full week of 2021 has been smooth. For a fun discussion, I thought I would throw out the topic of thank you notes.
I’ll admit that I don’t send as many thank you notes as I used to, but I really do try. Knowing how good it makes me feel to receive one, I want to keep that tradition going, and I want to teach it to my children.
Do you still send handwritten thank you notes? Or do you think it’s a lost art?
One of my readers suggested I write a post about the man in the red suit. In the United States, the vast majority of preschoolers believe in Santa Claus, although most kids stop believing by mid-elementary school. As young children, my older brother and I were among that group.
On Christmas morning, we each came downstairs to find a big, unwrapped gift under the tree that was from Santa, as well as a few smaller, wrapped gifts from our parents. On Easter, the Easter Bunny hid a basket for each of us to find. And when we lost teeth, the Tooth Fairy left a few quarters under our pillows.
I distinctly remember the day when my brother told me the truth about Santa, when I was about eight years old. We were driving in the car, and I remember exactly where we were. “Does that mean the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy aren’t real either?” I asked. His response made me cry.
Mr. Handsome grew up being told that the Wise Men came on camels and left gifts under the tree. On Christmas Eve, his dad stomped around on their roof. “The camels are here!” his mom would say. “You have to go to bed, or they won’t bring presents.”
Having come from two different backgrounds, Mr. Handsome and I are faced with a big decision: What will we tell our children? Little Buddy was still too young to understand who brought his gifts this Christmas, but we’ve decided not to do Santa Claus or the Wise Men. Before I explain why, I want to start by saying that I have absolutely nothing against parents who hold to either tradition.
For me, the biggest reason is that I don’t want to risk confusing my kids. And while I don’t necessarily think that I trusted my parents any less when I found out the truth about Santa, but it’s more about my perspective as a mom. Even with a young toddler, I always strive to keep my word. I try not to make promises to Little Buddy that I can’t keep.
I do want Christmas to be a magical time for our children, and I plan on starting some fun Christmas traditions for our family, perhaps as soon as next year. Do you have any suggestions? I would also love to hear your thoughts on Santa Claus.
On Christmas morning, we awoke to the news of yet another destructive tragedy in Nashville (following the damage caused by severe tornadoes in March and looting in May). In the early hours of the morning, a suspicious RV was parked in front of the AT&T transmission building in downtown Nashville, just a couple blocks away…
To help counteract the financial strain that has been put on small businesses over the past eight months, we have been doing our part this Christmas season. We have really been trying to buy gifts from local vendors. In the age of Amazon, it’s so easy to purchase gifts from large retailers and send them…
Last week, we had a wonderful surprise: a beautiful snowfall. The snow started in the late morning and continued through most of the afternoon. It may not look like much to those of you who have experienced winter in the North, but for Nashville, Tennessee, it is considered to be quite a bit. This early…
This summer, I shared with you that I had experienced a miscarriage at 6 weeks. I also published a post titled “What I Learned from My Miscarriage.” A couple months later, we found out we were expecting again. As you can imagine, we were absolutely thrilled. For the first several weeks of my pregnancy, I…
Last month, at the request of some of my readers, I shared a post with healthy eating tips. Rather than cram everything into one post, I figured I would break it up into two parts. Ice cream is Mr. Handsome’s weakness. Honestly, homemade milkshakes are usually the only sweets he eats aside from baked goods….
As we approach Election Day in the United States, we would like to put out a call to prayer for our nation. While there has been a lot of controversy surrounding this election, Christians can have perfect peace as we rest in the truth that God is in control. Since the beginning of time, God…
The day after our friends’ wedding near Denver, we drove down to Colorado Springs to enjoy the beautiful scenery. We would have loved to visit Rocky Mountain National Park, but we had heard about how busy it was, and we didn’t want to throw ourselves into huge crowds of people and be exposed to a…
Healthy eating is something that I’m very passionate about. Since middle school, I have been keeping track of my fat and sugar intake every day and educating myself about food labels. A few readers have asked for tips, so I thought I would share some principles that have helped me. I don’t have a particular…
