Logan's 1st "Christ"mas

I know this was not Logan's 1st Christmas, but it was his 1st "Christ"mas, meaning it was the first year he *really* understood what Christmas is about. His MDO does a Christmas program and teaches all the stories leading up to it, so I loved that he was coming home talking about baby Jesus and getting excited to see all the "antivities" (nativities) decorating people's yards and at churches.

On Thanksgiving we gave him the Little People nativity set and he LOVED it. We had a table in the entryway for it to sit on and he would play over there with it everyday. He loved moving all the animals and Mary, Joseph, and the 3 Wise Men around and on more than one occasion he had them all forming a circle surrounding baby Jesus. It was adorable. Of course, on more than one occasion he had the donkey or baby Jesus on top of the manger where the angel was supposed to be, but whatever.

Going to look at Christmas lights every other year has just been about all the lights and characters but this year he was most excited about seeking out nativity sets. It was pretty awesome, especially considering we are not active church-goers (trying to change that), that he is still so interested and curious about Jesus.

We went to a couple different live nativity scenes, one at Church at the Cross in Grapevine and one at a church in North Richland Hills (I can't remember the name). He enjoyed both of them but the one at Church at the Cross was unbelievable. You were led through the woods and everything was so realistic, from all the live animals to the Romans riding up on horseback to check for "papers" to the town of Bethlehem and the inn. When we got to the manger, Logan got right up front where Mary and Joseph were talking and everyone was singing and praying. He was entranced. And he wanted to touch baby Jesus. Real bad. But he didn't. It was awesome and we will definitely do it again next year.

Now, of course, on Christmas Day it is much harder to focus on the meaning of Christmas when he is basically the only child (at least on my side of the family) and he has countless presents to open. But before we went to bed that night we recapped what Christmas was all about and he said his cute little prayer thanking Jesus for all his presents (I don't lead his prayers...he can say whatever he wants) and blessing everyone in our family basically. While he doesn't have an interest in praying every night (and I don't push it), when he does say them they are pretty darn cute.

But we also do the fun Santa stuff. Chris and I were both raised with the knowledge of Jesus and the meaning of Christmas but also the magic of Santa, so we wanted to do the same for Logan. We got an Elf on the Shelf this year, named Buddy, and went to see Santa and Logan loved it all. It was perfect.

All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas and held much more meaning for all of us this year because teaching Logan about it was a great reminder for the rest of us.

Logan as the donkey in his Christmas program