December is typically a busy month for us, but not in the ways you might expect.
I don't bake any cookies or buy Joshua or our kids any gifts. I am grateful to either Nana or Grammie, depending on which year our rotation is on, for doing the decorating and stocking stuffing and feast preparation.
We go to cookie decorating events and Christmas concerts and various parties. Sophia sees Santa in a parade or at the mall and smiles and waves not quite sure of what to make of him.
At school she made a Menorah for Chanukah and a Kinara for Kwanzaa and I am glad she is learning about these holidays. At home though we have conversations about how Chanukah is just one of the many holidays Jewish people celebrate and not considered the most important one. We talk about how Kwanzaa is in part a celebration of being all together ("unity") and how baby Jesus would have had a darker shade of skin than hers and mine based on where and when he was born.
Walking past a department store front, I see a sign that reads, "O Come All Ye Gift Givers!". A clever marketing slogan off a hymn from the 1700s which actually suggests, "O Come let us Adore Him". Generous gift giving is not a bad thing, but there is an even greater story of hope and reconciliation.
So while Sophia may be confused about where the Nutcracker figurine fits into the Manger scene, she also loudly exclaims when noticing candy cane decorations at the gym, "Look Mama! A J for Jesus!".
There will be questions of faith I can never answer for her, but someday I may find it helpful to go back to these words she sang at age 3 for a start:
