A Few Precious Christmas Moments

As I'm typing this I'm sitting in the kitchen. From here I can smell the pumpkin bread baking in the oven, I can feel the clutter of Christmas wrappings, and I can see Thom and Kara sitting at the dining room table showing Thom's grandmother all of the latest sites on the Internet. She's now had Lessons in Facebook, LinkedIn, Hulu.com, Twitter and Webkinz world. Thom is as gentle with her as if he were teaching a small child and she's soaking it all in and asking good question. It's very sweet, but not the first sweet moment of today.


Just a few minutes ago Kara and I were sitting together in our new "big chair" in the living room. It's the kind of chair that a grown-up can sit in and a kid can sit across you resting their legs on the big, round arms of the chair. Kara and I were having a very serious conversation. Over the years Kara has often inquired the answer to the question "are we poor?" For a while this was based on our residence in an apartment rather than a house. Sometimes this related to some random comment about whether or not we could afford something, sometimes it just seemed the question itself was random. Either way it has been a recurrent theme for her. So, today we were again revisiting this question. She had a wonderful Christmas, but overheard a bit of conversation that concerned her, so we were having a serious Mommy-Daughter talk. I remembered that although I had talked with quite a few adults about my recent feelings on staying steadfast in trusting in the Lord, I had not really talked with Kara about this. Here was my chance. We talked about the challenges this year had presented. We talked about James Chapter 1 and we talked about what it means to be steadfast in our trust of the Lord for all things. The conversation concluded with me saying I was not planning on losing hope in God and as long as we had hope in God, we would not ever be truly poor. So, I asked her, are you planning on losing hope in God? And she answered me with the look of a true believer and said "would I ever do that?" and hopped off my lap secure in her hope in the Lord.


Ok, one more sweet Christmas story. For weeks now the only Christmas wish from Caleb has been for a vacuum cleaner. And not just any vacuum cleaner. He wanted the toy Hoover Windtunnel Upright with attachments. To the best of my knowledge it hasn't been in a store since 2006 and only one has been on eBay in the last two months. Look it up -- it's over $100 on Amazon and that's if they have one. So, first we tried to convince him any vacuum would do just fine. He didn't buy that. One night, about three weeks ago, we were sitting at the dinner table talking with Caleb about Jesus and Santa -- who was real, who do we worship, etc. So, I asked Caleb -- "What has Jesus done for you?" -- of course I was hoping for the words "He died on the cross for my sins." -- nope, I get "Jesus has a vacuum cleaner?" It was all Thom and I could do to keep from laughing ! After this we began seriously thinking --- we need to find this boy the vacuum of his dreams! So, we sent a note out on Twitter -- to the whole free world and some of the not-so-free world. We got back one response -- from very close friends at our church!!! Sure enough Jesus had a vacuum cleaner for Caleb -- it just happened to visit our friend's house for a few years first.

Fast forward to last night. It's 10pm and the little guy COULD not fall asleep. Armed with a green crayon and a piece of paper he snatched from his sister, he wanted to write a letter to Santa. Evidently the voices of his friends and teachers are just as loud as Mommy & Daddy and Santa-lore lives on. Ok, we'll write him a letter. After some scribbly attempts on his own, I offered to take dicatation. He told me line by line : "Dear Santa, I want a vacuum cleaner for Christmas. Mommy and Daddy love you. Grandma and Papa love you. I love my friends Ben and Greyson." He paused and looked at me.

"Mommy, what about Jesus?" he asked.
"What about Jesus, Caleb?"
"We forgot Jesus." he said.
"What did we forget about Jesus, Caleb?"
"We forgot to write Jesus."
"Do you want me to write something about Jesus."
"We need to write Jesus."
"Caleb, do you want this letter to GO to Jesus."
"Yes, Mommy!!"
"Ok, can we cross out Santa and write Jesus instead."
"Oh, yes, Mommy!"

So, I drew a big green X through Santa and wrote Jesus up above. And re-read the letter.

"Dear Jesus, I want a vacuum cleaner for Christmas. Mommy and Daddy love you. Grandma and Papa love you. I love my friends Ben and Greyson. I love you, too. Caleb."

Then we had to draw a picture of the vacuum cleaner on the back and Caleb slept holding this piece of paper.

6:45 AM -- Caleb is up the stairs and heading to the presents. When he saw the vacuum cleaner, his mouth fell open and he announced "What in the world?! It's a vacuum cleaner!!"

About two hours later we were sitting eating breakfast in the kitchen. Caleb leaned over to me and said:

"Mommy, I'm yucky."
"No, you're not Caleb. You're yummy."
"No, Mommy, I'm yucky."
"Caleb, what part of you is yucky?"
"No, Mommy, I'm yuck-y" He said slowly and I got it!
"Oh, Caleb, do you mean you're Lucky?!"
"Yes, Mommy. I'm yucky."
"Why are you lucky Caleb?"

He hopped up from the table and ran from the room. A minute or two later he came back in holding his letter to Jesus. "See Mommy. I'm yucky."

I was astounded. How many three year olds do you know who feel fortunate or blessed or lucky? It seems in this day and age, most kids feel entitled, sometimes even disappointed. I feel lucky that my little guy feels lucky today. I pray that all of our prayers could be answered as simply as Caleb's little vacuum cleaner. And if not, I pray that all of us could have Kara's confidence that she will never have a time in her life where she would give up on trusting in God.

Remember to enjoy the Gift of Christmas every day of your life. Christmas is supposed to be a Holy-Day, not just a holiday and it is here to remind us that the truth of Jesus is true every day. May 2009 be a blessing in your life!