Yesterday the kids and I made a birthday cake for Jesus. My little chefs were involved from start to finish. They measured, cracked eggs, licked the beaters, watched the oven, iced the cake (more like poked holes in the cake with their knives), and then they sprinkled. And boy did they sprinkle. I had written “Happy Birthday Jesus!” on the cake, but by the time they were done all that could be seen was “Bir J”. But they were oh so proud.
They were abnormally happy to pose for pictures with their cake. They were simply thrilled about their creation and couldn’t wait to taste the sprinkled goodness.
After dinner we had a full on birthday party. We sang to Jesus and then the kids blew out his candles. (Molly liked it that Jesus got to have her leftover pink candles from her birthday party.)
The kids loved every minute of the cake. Trav and me? Not so much. I looked over at Travis after my first bite and said, ”Well, it sure is crunchy.”. Owen and Molly, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed it. Owen even told me that this was the best cake he’d ever eaten and asked to have it for his birthday. I guess I should stop putting so much effort into fun shaped cakes for him and just give him loads of sprinkles instead. Here’s Owen post-cake…he looks like he had some fun with red lipstick.
And Molly looks like she’s straight off the set of Twilight…with a little gangsta flair.
All the sugar made the kids crazy animals. They ran around like wild banshees during the whole first half of the Mizzou/Illinois basketball game until Trav and I corraled them into bed.
We’ve done the whole Santa thing with the kids this year. We visited him at the mall, we’ve read books about him, and the kids are excited about getting presents from him on Christmas morning. But I want my kids to understand that Christmas isn’t about Santa, Rudolph, or the presents. Christmas is about the precious gift of Jesus. We give gifts to people we love because God gave us the best gift ever…Jesus, his Son, and the promise of eternal life. My prayer is that, as we start these next two days of Christmas fun, Owen and Molly will remember the birthday party that we had last night and know that Santa is a fun tradition, but Jesus is the reason we celebrate.
Merry Christmas!
