Twas the night before Christmas....

Raylen woke up on Christmas morning at 4:30am. She came to our door and began beating on it calling for me to wake up. As an official Santa's Elf, I had only gone to bed 3 1/2 hours earlier so it was a bit hard for me to drag myself out of the warm bed to answer her calls. When I got to the door, my little blonde girl, dressed in her red plaid Christmas nightgown and still rubbing her eyes, told me that she had just seen Santa. She put her hand over her mouth as she always does when she has just told or heard something so amazing she can't even believe it. Still groggy I asked her to repeat it and she told me the same thing. "Honey, I think you were dreaming", I said. "No. I saw him, Mommy" she replied. Raylen then told me a whole story about how she had been dreaming and something woke her up. She said she saw Santa at her window tapping on it and waving. Then, she said he got in his sleigh and flew away with the reindeer after he wished her Merry Christmas. I shook my head with a grin on my face and hugged her and told her that was a fantastic story. She hadn't even seen what was under the tree yet, so I directed her to look while I tried to wake up and reflect on what she'd just told me.

Now, I have to admit that throughout the morning I kept thinking about the story. Raylen had told me the story in such vivid detail that it seemed magical and convincing-I really wanted to believe it too! This thought puzzled me. I am a grown woman who has been VERY well aware of the details of Christmas wonderment for some time. I KNOW in my mind that there is no way in the world that Raylen saw Santa Claus at her window. Yet my heart, soft, whimsical and always looking for a fairytale, somehow wanted to believe that the joke had been on me all along and that truly, for me and Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

Later that day, still thinking about the story as I recalled it for other family members, the Lord spoke to me about my belief in other things...namely Him. I was reminded about how easily it is to be swayed by others thoughts and beliefs and of course by the media and our culture. I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is God and Jesus is His son, all God and all man, died on the cross after leading a sinless life and rose from the grave three days later and that by faith in Him I will live in Eternity with Him and others who trust in Him. These things are non negotiables and I KNOW them to be true like I KNOW that I am breathing right now. But, somedays, when I've watched way too much television or I've read too much garbage, I think, what if they're right? What if I'm wrong? When I question those things I know are truths, I go back to point A and I am reminded of what and who Truth is.

The Lord used my daughter's fanciful dramatization of Santa to remind me of the importance to guard my heart and mind from lies and thoughts that are only half truths. The Bible says, "Above all, guard your heart for out of it is the wellspring of life." Proverbs 4:23. I'm going to do a better job of that in 2009...this I resolve.

Extreme Fun!

If you haven't heard already, Extreme Home Makeover has come to town....well not exactly the town that my zip code corresponds to, but around here, towns overlap so easily that it feels like it's our town! The house is located only about 3 miles from our house and the family receiving the gift is someone we used to go to church with and the photographer that did our precious 5 year anniversary photos. The whole town has been buzzing this week and it's been an exciting time to watch the community join together to help this family.

So....of course I wanted to be apart of that too! I didn't get the opportunity to go hang out at the the house until Saturday night. My friend Rachel and I left our hubbies home with the kiddos and ventured out to the site around 9pm. The workers literally work throughout the night and a spectator area is set up for gawkers to watch the work as it happens. We spent a little while watching and taking pictures and then realized that we had to get a free tshirt that they were handing out to volunteers. We petitioned to be a volunteer at the volunteer tent, but they said that the slots were all full and there was an eight page waiting list! We saw our friends Vanessa and Janna go to work their shift and we decided to stay for a bit longer to watch them work. By 11:15, we were ready to give up, but a security guard suggested we go to the volunteer tent one last time to see if anyone had not shown up. We were ecstatic to find that they needed more people and we were quickly given shirts and hard hats and escorted to the concession tent to serve. We were taken aback though when we heard that the shift was until 6am! We just couldn't do that long with our Sunday family duties coming soon, but we assured the foreman we could stay for a couple of hours anyway. We were a little giggly and delirious while serving and stocking the tables with cokes, snacks, cookies and pizza as far as the eye could see. We were able to load up trays of goodies and walked around serving those working in and out of the house. The house is beautiful, but we weren't permitted to take interior photos. We left shortly after 2:30, just after eating a Texas favorite Al's Hamburger which had been delivered for the 2am meal. We were so happy to have helped out even a little and can't wait to see the show in February or March. For more info and phots on the house visit http://www.extreme.wall.com/default.html


Extreme Reality! Woo Hoo!

My official tshirt after a long night of work!

Me on trash duty

Food as far as the eye can see!

Vanessa and Janna while we were still on the outside looking in.

Rachel and I are bonded for life after this experience!

Looking at the house from the spectator area.

Hard workers....