We can't have a messy house for Santa!

I have so much blogging to catch up on but I needed to share the craziness going on in our house right now. It's GREAT craziness, don't get me wrong. All 4 of the kids are currently cleaning up the basement, including vacuuming, because they said "It will be embarassing if our house is messy when Santa comes!" Of course I welcome ANY cleaning help I can get....I don't care what the reason is.....although their reason definitely makes me laugh.

A couple years ago, Noah came right out and asked if Santa was real. Jeff and I had discussed when Noah was born that if our children asked us any questions, we would answer them honestly. This has been a very difficult thing to do sometimes especially when the question is about how babies are born, how did the baby get in my tummy, if I get the flu with a baby in my tummy can I throw up the baby, etc etc. Anyway, I disgress. When Noah asked us about Santa he told him the truth. We said that it was just a story based on a true story of a real man named St Nicholas, the "santas" we see at the mall are men dressed up, that the presents come from Mommy & Daddy, and that the reason we celebrate Christmas is because of Jesus' birth. He seemed to understand that and we heard no more about Santa. That was also the year we homeschooled him for kindergarten.

Last year we heard a little bit about Santa but mostly songs they were learning in school. Now this year is a completely different story! Noah is in 2nd grade (public school), Abby is in 1st grade (public school), and Joey is in kindergarten (public school). They all want to put out cookies and milk for Santa and Noah informed me that I couldn't eat them! Joey has been writing notes all day about "Joey loves Santa". Noah told me that he hopes Santa brings him something because he's been really trying to be good. Now they are cleaning so the house can be clean for Santa.

Part of me wants to laugh and thinks it's really cute. But another part of me wishes they weren't so focused on Santa and cared more about Jesus' birthday.

I was just thinking about how desperately they wanted to make sure the basement was clean for Santa but how focused am I on asking God to "clean up my heart" so I'm ready for Christmas. I need to take some time this afternoon to do that so I can get the full meaning of Christmas.