one blessed shepherd: Do you Believe?

Well do you?

I do. I always have. The magic of Christmas is like a glitzy offshoot of "fields". This will not be a post on sweet baby Jesus, but on the extension of what his birth has created for us. Be what it may in our commercial society, Christmas, to me, is awesome! And so.....

Visiting the KCS Holiday Express!

The warm twinkly glow of Christmas lights. Driving by and seeing the story of "family" inside people's homes. The bustle of Christmas shopping. Radio stations that go Christmas! LOVE that. And lets go back to the wonderful world of being a kid: the enchantment of Santa and his elves. The North Pole. Making lists of things you'd love to have. Christmas songs at school, Christmas parties, Christmas crafts, cookies, candy canes and even Christmas books and movies.

These are all treasures of the Christmas season. To quote a new movie I watched today: "Believing is not what you see with your eyes, its what you feel with your heart." This movie was fantastic, a new kids movie that I think will be a hit for years to come.

To the Left: A picture of Elfie, our friendly scout Elf. He visits us from the North Pole every year and did not disappoint this year. He arrived, and set the table with snowman donuts, hot chocolate, and Christmas confetti, all set out on Christmas dishes. And, he hung a couple ornaments the kids had made and then dangled from the chandelier to wait until we woke to see him the next morning! (and yes that's a pumpkin that still has not come down...

give me a break already!)

Real life intercession: A cold that has stretched to its 3rd week. Christmas decorations to put up...outside, inside, at the kids school. Christmas shopping, prepping for company, prepping to travel, the usual laundry/dishes mantra, two big annoying canker sores that make you drool while you press on, and oh wait, the baby just chipped his new front tooth.....screeeech. Plan A for today was clean house, decorate, listen to Christmas music, you know.....: Plan B (implemented immediately on recognition of the dental situation): drop Grace at school, hit the pediatric dentist, swing by somewhere for snacks as you head to Jack's gymnastics class, grab Grace from school, take all 3 to your dentist to get your canker sores burned off (sounds horrible but its so worth it). Phew.

Now, as I'm headed to the dentist, I read an encouraging text that steers the emotions in the right direction and then a friend calls and asks what I'm up to. The tears practically fly out of my eyes, heat pressing through the pores in my face as I try to hold it together but...well, I couldn't. I reached my limit and the steam poured out. What kind of a mom am I anyway? Baby with a chipped tooth who lives in an undecorated house. My friend listened, offered to help, and said she'd help me put up my tree. Me "no, no, I've got it". Her "Do you do real or artificial?" Me "I love real but this year I'll just throw up the artificial one and be done with it." She agrees, we say good bye. End of convo basically. I thanked her for her ear and prepared my mind and eyes for the dental visit.

So we pull into the driveway after our LONG morning, and I find this.....................

I am speechless.

I know instantly what is going on.

My kids fly out of the car "read it mom, read it mom".

"Merry Christmas Shepherds! Love, Santa"

"ps- I sent my little helper to watch you until Christmas so be good!"

This is the stuff of movie plots, this doesn't happen to me, ever. But it did today.

There were sprinkly donuts...

Rolls of sparkly red ribbon to decorate with....

and not kidding, the tree came equipped with a stand and water reservoir!

and a new girl Elf, whom Grace promptly named "Snowflake". We opened her box but were careful not to touch her (as her magic would be gone!) and set her next to Elfie! Then we watched the movie Snowflake had brought.

Someone went out of their way to pull together a moment that I'd been grasping for- the Christmas spirit. It was not what I saw with my eyes, its what I felt with my heart. It reminded me what its like to feel the receiving end of Christmas, in total surprise, yet with the adult concept of true gratitude.