The List

1. Sonic chocolate malt
2. Margarita snow cone from Cajun Sno
3. Ice cream
4. A&W root beer
5. chocolate of any kind
6. Sprite or 7UP while waiting in line at the grocery store
7. Really...sweets of any kind

What is this list you say? Not a list of stuff I have vowed not to eat because of a New Year's Resolution, but a list of stuff I am craving and can't have since 2 weeks ago. I found out I have gestational diabetes. I have to prick my finger and check my blood sugar 4 times a day, stay on a specific diet, and get more exercise. So far, it hasn't been bad. But I do miss my regulars from the list above. The good news is that we will have an ultrasound every month until he is born and there is really no harm to him except that sometimes the babies are bigger. So they check for growth every month. Since starting the diet, my blood sugar has stayed totally normal. So, Dallas or any friends who live in Lafayette, right after I have the baby, you now have a list of stuff you can bring me in the hospital!

Christmas

I love Christmas. There...I admit it. I love getting gifts, I love all of the songs, I love getting a tree and then decorating it, I love the lights, I love buying gifts for people I love, I love being with the people I love, and I loved having Santa Claus bring me gifts as a kid.

This year, right around the beginning of November, I started seeing Christmas decorations in stores and advertisements for buying decorations and gifts. I thought, "Wow, already!" I was almost saddened because I knew that just as fast as the season begins, it ends. Is that crazy? I almost didn't want it to start.

So this year, as Elias is over a year and a half, we had to have "the talk". You know...are we going to do the Santa Claus thing with him? I have many fond memories of Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we would all go the candlelight service at church, then on to my grandparents for food and singing with carols with the player piano. We would rush home because we didn't want to miss Santa's bells (my dad ringing them from another room). I remember Christmas morning, waking up my brother and sister and mom and dad and waiting until we could run out the door and see what Santa brought us and what kind of note he left for us (we always wrote him a note about how good we were and left it by the cookies and milk...my dad would always write something clever that rhymed in response).

My husband has hated Christmas all of his adult life...the commercialism, the hype, the not celebrating the REAL reason. He enjoyed Santa when he was little, who wouldn't?? But when faced with deciding if we should do it with Elias... He asked me one question...what do you remember most about Christmas...Santa or Jesus? My answer was so quick, it almost scared me. I had missed why we should celebrate Christmas. I felt like the Grinch in the last scene of the movie where he talks about how the Who's didn't have presents, or trees, or a big turkey dinner, but they were still singing and gathered together, the tall and the small...well, you know the rest. I think I had my answer. But is there a way to do both well where when our kids grow up, they have memories not all about Santa?

Okay, I have to be brutally honest. On Christmas Eve this year, it was time to put Elias to bed and I wanted so bad for my dad to go in the back and ring the bells. And I wanted to write Santa a letter from all us kids and leave him cookies. And the following words flew out of mouth, literally before I could think, "Elias, right now, Santa is coming and Jesus is being born!" Dallas did not hold back the laughter and I joined in with him at the absurdity of my words. I felt like an idiot.

So when Elias is old enough to understand, I will not lie to him and tell him Santa is real. I will probably tell him about how the Santa thing got started,
St. Nicholas and all, but I don't want to lie.

My brother and sister-in-law are kind of doing this. I had to hold back my laughter when one of my aunts asked Will what Santa had brought him for Christmas. His answer, "Nothing". She was taken aback...it was hilarious. My mom quickly said, "What presents did you get?" and he spatted off his favorites.

So, to all of you who post comments...what are your Santa/Christmas thoughts?