Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Toy Catalogs and Reality

The catalogs have started to arrive in our mailbox each day. You know the ones with the all the wonderful Christmas ideas. I really love the ones from the Travel Clothing companies. Who really needs undergarments with zippers to hide your valuables. If you are traveling to countries that you need to hide your valuables; best not to bring them along.

Come on people! Even the passengers on the "Love Boat" were smart enough to store their gold and jewels away in the ships safe. They didn't wear unmentionables under their swim suits on the Lido Deck and expect Gopher to serve them their Mai Tai's at the same time.

My kids love the toy catalogs. They have a system. Each picks a different colored highlighter and circles their choices. On the outside, they then write their names and circle with the color of choice so I can decipher who really wants the Barbie Princess Swimming Friend, or the pink Nintendo DS vs the table top air hockey game with 5 different games.

Seriously, do they not think I can figure out an 11 year old boys choices vs a 4 year old girl? Come on I wasn't born yesterday. Every 8 year old wants a swimming friend; don't they?

The littlest girl is just getting into this "Christmas List Making" and she is circling everything. My husband commented that on one page of a big blue toy catalog, she'd picked every Lincoln Log and Erector set there was.

She went to bed a few nights ago after circling away and asked me the following question.

"Now, when do I get all this stuff again?"

Guess we better get the Advent devotions out early this year and begin re-teaching our children about the "want bug" that is very contagious at stores, mailboxes and lunch tables across our great city. You know the bug that infects everything in it's path with the belief that want=needs=get and the bug that slowly moves the Baby Jesus further away from our celebrations this Christmas.

O Lord, I pray that this Christmas our family will keep it's focus on the wonder of Baby Jesus; God's only son come to earth rather than on the glitter and hype of the Christmas Shopping Season. May it be so.

In order to keep it real, I think I should rid our home of highlighters for the next few weeks. Better safe than sorry!

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