The fat guy in red came!

First of all, I've got to got on my soapbox for a minute and talk about the controversial fat guy in red. We 'do' Santa at our house.

We know a lot of families who don't 'do' Santa because they don't want to confuse Santa's realness with Christ's realness, and they want Christmas to be all about the birth of Christ. I totally understand their decision and am grateful that we each can make decisions for our own families. We have decided to 'do' Santa at our house and that decision was not taken lightly. We talked and prayed about it before we had children. Here's why we 'do' Santa.....

-The birth of Christ is not downplayed at all in our house, and we teach our children that Christmas is celebrated because of the Christ-Child.

-We talk every day about the realness of Christ.

-We do not talk about the realness or the fakeness of Santa.

I got so frustrated this last Christmas with adults (who don't 'do' Santa at their house) talking too openly about the fact that they don't 'do' Santa in front of my children. Hang in there, I'm almost done with my soapbox! So...if you decide not to 'do' Santa in your family, please do not spoil the fun for mine! Whew, I feel better now...jumping off my soapbox.

Now, on to what Santa brought to our house.....
The girls got a new kitchen, earrings, boots that they had been asking for forever (thanks to the Gap commercial), and some new books.

Nana and Papa got them new dress up clothes.
Aunt Carey made them these fun outfits. Oh and btw, did you see their new haircuts?!
And here we are looking at their main present. We surprised the girls with a trip to the American Girl Store for the next day. We're looking through the magazine here trying to decide which dolls they want to get!

Up next...pics of them picking out their dolls in the store and eating lunch with our dolls too....so fun!