Thoughts on Santa

I have such mixed feelings on Santa. On one hand I want to be able to shower Madeline with gifts and watch how excited she gets with each and every mention of Santa's name. I also like the idea of having to be good all year in order to get presents. BUT, and that's big on purpose, I really want to stress the true reason for Christmas. I want Christmas to be all about Christ's birth and celebrating the best gift we could have ever received. Christmas has become a little stressful because of this constant debate I have going on in my head. I figure this is my last year to figure this issue out because next year Madeline will remember what we do and how we handle it.

I tried to just do Sinterklaas but that isn't gonna happen. Santa will be bringing a stocking full of stuff on Christmas morning. Also, Santa will be making yearly stops at the inlaws dropping off presents for Madeline. This I can not control, so I'm not even going to try. Madeline also pretty much discovered Santa all on her own so that has to factor into the equation a bit. At this time she doesn't know he brings gifts but she sure loves the guy regardless. I really don't want to tell Madeline that Santa isn't real because I don't want her spoiling it for other kids. I don't need angry parents calling me to tell me my child spoiled their Christmas. I do fear, however, that if I say that Santa is real and then Madeline finds out it was all pretend that she'll think Jesus is pretend too.

So here are my ideas for now but I really am not thrilled with any of them.

1.) Do Sinterklaas and teach Madeline the history behind that and don't do Christmas stockings or visit Santa.

2.) Continue Sinterklaas and stockings and make a yearly visit to Santa, but tell Madeline from the get go the truth about Santa and hope she doesn't spoil it for other kids.

3.) Avoid the issue and then when Madeline asks why Santa doesn't bring her presents tell her that mommy and daddy told Santa not to bring presents so he could use the money/time he'd spend on her gifts giving/making gifts for the poor children. --- if I do this I'm afraid that she'll think that only poor kids get gifts from Santa.

4.) Go all out, give in and just do the Santa thing and hope we can somehow use the belief in Santa to explain Jesus.

Maybe we'll just get lucky and Madeline will be like me. I just kind of went along with Santa, never really believed but didn't spoil it for other kids either. I'm sure I'm stressing about this for nothing and I obviously have too much time on my hands to even be thinking about this at all.

So what does everyone else out there do with the whole Santa thing? I'd love some ideas.

One hurdle cleared!

Today I had my HSN test. I had been very nervous about this test. The outcome of the test would determine if I'd need surgery or if we could proceed with our January plans. Turns out that my body decided to cooperate for once. Everything in my uterus and tubes looks fantastic! I feel a huge sense of relief. I feel like God is saying "yes it's time".

Now we anxiously await January. Please keep Madeline's frozen siblings in your prayers. We need a nice thaw in January ;)

overheard

I have been teaching Madeline the song "The B.I.B.L.E." She loves to shout out Bible! This song happens to be on the cd she listens to at bedtime and naptime at the moment. Right now she is upstairs in her crib "napping". We heard "The Bible" come on and then right on cue heard BIBLE!
~giggle~

Uh Oh Daddy!

Madeline has become obsessed with anything dirty or "gucky" as she calls it. Tonight after dinner she noticed Eric had spilled something on his shirt. For at least half an hour she kept pointing to the spot saying "uh oh Daddy". It was pretty fun. Eric finally changed his shirt.

Choo Choo!

Yesterday we took some time to decorate a gingerbread choo choo train. Madeline had a lot of fun and even snuck in her first piece of gum!





YUM! Frosting.



Bonus pictures of her playing in a box with her "babies"

Planning

I am a planner at heart. I love making lists and dreaming of what's to come. Currently, I'm in planning mode for a couple of things. We're going to be moving Madeline into her big girl room in a couple of weeks in hopes she sleeps better in a bed then she does in her crib. I just installed her closet organizer into her new closet which is twice the size of her current one. YAY! I am also trying to find some really cute bedding. You see when we did her nursery we did it more gender neutral thinking we wouldn't have to redo it when a 2nd child came. It's underwater themed and if it weren't for the purple walls it would be more boyish then anything. So I'm having a lot of fun trying to find bedding. I'm thinking we'll do fairy's or ballet or something really girly. Now if I could just find something in queen size I'd be a happy camper!

The second thing I'm planning is a Disney Vacation that we're taking in early 2010. I'm having a lot of fun deciding where to stay and what things to do and see. I spend a lot of time on the disboards reading threads about who liked this and who hated that. I really am enjoying the planning of this vacation. If for some reason the FET doesn't work in a couple of months we'll be taking the trip in September of 2009 instead. :)

Thirdly, we're anticipating having a baby in October or November of next year. I'm currently starting to mentally go through the new things we'll need. Things like "will we need a double stroller or will a sit to stand be sufficient for Madeline?" "Should we get that video monitor in hopes that my paranoia will be less next time around?" Things get added to the list daily like now I feel the need for a hooter hider even though I doubt I'll be able to breastfeed. And it would be really cool to have a Maya wrap instead of the bjiorn we already have. Then I have to tell myself to stop all the planning because "you don't want to be all prepared for something that isn't going to happen". So I haven't actually made a physical list as of yet. We'll wait for that til May or June I think.

Lets not forget that Madeline's 2nd birthday is coming up in a little over 3 months. Although I don't really want to think about that so no planning is happening for that as of yet.

Also, we still need to sell this house so at least once a week we come up with a new plan of attack for that. Right now we go back and forth between re-listing the house in the spring and just putting it as low as we can go in order to afford the next house and waiting til 2010 after the Disney trip. The only clear answer that will help is if we get pregnant with twins. THEN we'll know that God is telling us to wait til 2010 to sell. We're waiting for the big 2 X 4 on the house thing and the biggest 2 X 4 I can think of would be twins.

Then I find myself remembering that only God knows the plans he has for me so maybe I should stop, breathe, and let go.

Sinterklaas

One of the traditions we started when Madeline was born was to celebrate Sinterklaas. This way we could have "Santa" bring presents on a day that wasn't Christmas thus satisfying the hunger for Santa (and boy does she have it this year) but not focusing so much on gifts at Christmas. As a bonus it ties in our Dutch heritage to the festivities. We are really trying hard to focus on the birth of Christ at Christmas and not so much on Santa, although she will still get a stocking with small things like headbands and a book or two.

Last night Madeline put out her wooden shoes.


She didn't quite get it so was trying to wear them at first.

Then she must have thought we said if you put your wooden shoes by the door Sinterklaas leaves presents in your nose ;)

This morning we woke up VERY early (4:45). So instead of trying to force her back to sleep we decided to head downstairs to see if Sinterklaas left us anything.

He did!


Look mom the presents were left by my shoes!



One of Madeline's favorite songs is the wheel on the bus. Everytime she sees a school bus she starts singing "round n round". We thought she'd love this!

She loves to lift heavy things.

Even though it was early she enjoyed opening her gifts. Hopefully next year she'll understand even more about the holiday.

Back in the saddle.

The infertility saddle that is. It is time to start the process again. I go in for a test (HSN for those of you in the know) on December 15th. Hopefully everything is A- O.K. in there. If everything is fine and dandy we'll start injections sometime in January.

So here's the "plan" (hopefully it's God's plan too). December 15th HSN test. 2nd week in January start Lupron. A couple weeks later start Estrogen then PIO shots (OUCH) and progesterone suppositories (EW). Then they'll transfer the embryo's, I'm told on a Thursday. LOL Then in October/November welcome our new addition (or additions EEK).

We would appreciate all the prayers everyone can muster. We need prayer that my test on the 15th shows an all clear. Then we need prayer that my body cooperates for this to all happen in January. Then we need prayer that our little frozen embryo's surrvive the thaw. And last but certainly not least we need prayer that the embryo's decide to make a nice cozy home out of my uterus for the following 8 months! I don't know if I can take another loss.

To some up this post: Pray for us we're gonna need it.

Snow!

Yesterday we had a fun time playing in the snow. Madeline really seemed to enjoy it!


This is fun mom!

She almost tasted it but not quite. Good thing cause I saw a dog out there earlier ;)

Icicles are yummy!

The deer wanted a taste...

... and so did the penguin

One last taste.

After all the fun (about 10 minutes she didn't have any gloves) I told her we'd go in for some hot chocolate. Too bad she thought that meant chocolate chips. So instead of hot chocolate she had a lovely "snack" of chocolate chips. Yes I know.