The Fourth Day of Christmas...

So I've decided to step off my soapbox and go all "homeschool-y" for today's post.  While I would certainly not categorize us as unschoolers, I do try and follow the rabbit trails that my 3rd grader occasionally wants to go down.  This week, it was mistletoe!

On the fourth day of Christmas God blessed me with a parasitic plant spread by bird feces, 

a challenge for our gift-giving,

peace about the fat man in a red suit...

and a sweet party with new and old friends!

I did a little research on what mistletoe is, but more importantly, how it became the bane of office parties everywhere.  It is a parasite, meaning that it moves into a host tree, attaches itself, and feeds off of its nutrients.  How does it get there, one might ask?  It is spread by bird feces moving from tree to tree.  In fact, the name "mistletoe" may have come from the German roots mist (dung) and tang (branch).  So now, in addition to "angel", "stocking", and "Advent", we can add "feces" and "dung" to this week's spelling list.  Lovely.

Kissing under the mistletoe has become somewhat of a rite of passage during the holiday season- so much that you can mail-order fresh mistletoe if you don't feel like climbing a nearby tree.  How did that happen?  According to Wikipedia, "In cultures across pre-Christian Europe, mistletoe was seen as a representation of divine male essence (and thus romance, fertility and vitality), possibly due to a resemblance between the berries and semen."  Eww.

Washington Irving wrote about this in "Christmas Eve", describing the activities in a New England farmhouse leading up to Christmas:

Here were kept up the old games of hoodman blind, shoe the wild mare, hot cockles, steal the white loaf, bob apple, and snap dragon; the Yule-clog and Christmas candle were regularly burnt, and the mistletoe with its white berries hung up, to the imminent peril of all the pretty housemaids.  

Legend dictates that once you steal your kiss, you remove a berry from the branch.  Once the berries have all been plucked, a woman is no longer expected to pucker up.  The berries, incidentally, are poisonous, causing great gastro-intestinal discomfort.  Much like the feeling of regret you may have after meeting the wrong person under the storied evergreen.

Scholars believe that kissing under the mistletoe has its origins in Norse legends.  It was the "plant of peace" in ancient Scandinavia.  If enemies met under the mistletoe in the forest, they would lay down their weapons and embrace, calling a truce until the next day.  Even earlier than that was a legend surrounding a Norse god being killed by a spear fashioned from mistletoe.  His mother pronounced mistletoe to be sacred and to be used for love rather than death.

In past centuries, it has been hung in homes to ward off evil spirits, prevent witches from entering, and to extinguish house fires.  It has been used in pagan wedding ceremonies as a sign of fertility.  It has been attributed to a girl's chance of marrying in the following year.  These days, it is probably fodder for a good work-place sexual harassment case.  Regardless of your motivation, you'd better pucker up!

The Third Day of Christmas...

Dear Faithful Followers (aka: Mom),
I had no idea the stir I would create with yesterday's post.  I hope no one was offended- I just had a lot on my heart and mind to share.  I received so many encouraging messages via blogspot, Facebook, and email- thank you for supporting my crazy ideas about the way I'm raising my family!!  I hope today's missive will be as thought-provoking :-)

On the third day of Christmas, God blessed me with a challenge for our gift-giving,
peace about the fat man in a red suit...
and a sweet party with new and old friends!

For the past several years I have struggled with the excess of gifts that Christmas has created in our family.  This is a three tiered issue for me, in no particular order...

• I am annoyed by the expectation that my kids seem to have that they will receive a bountiful spread come Christmas morning.  I fully admit that I am the genesis of the problem, and yes, even the perpetuator, however I have made a concious effort to scale back over the past few years.  In our defense, we rarely buy them things other than birthdays and Christmas, but we still need to practice more restraint...
• Our home has more toys than some third world countries.  When Aaron and I got married, we literally were combining two grown-up size houses into one.  We did a pretty good job of paring down our belongings- it's our kids that haven't.  It certainly doesn't help that my oldest has a mind like a steel trap.  I was recently busted trying to throw away a fast food toy.  "But Mom," he wailed- you'd think I was pitching Faberge eggs- "I got that at the Burger King at the Atlanta airport in 2008.  It was after my first airplane ride with Laura & Martin.  It's so special to me!  You CAN'T throw it out!!"  I need to do a better job culling toys (broken ones, especially) but most of our toys have such great memories, either of the people that gave them to us, or of them playing with them.  I know, I know- take a picture and move on....
• The financial aspect of our gift-giving has become overwhelming.  The older they get, the more expensive the desired items are.  This, of course, just gets worse- have YOU priced 257 Wetherby Magnums or diamond solitaire earrings lately?  Seriously, $30 will get a pretty impressive haul for a 2 year old- that doesn't cover the stocking requests of the big boys!

What's a mom to do???  Cancel Christmas???

I started by talking to my oldest about the idea of gift giving.  I asked him why we gave gifts to each other at Christmas.  I expected the Sunday School answer regarding the Wise Men, but he blew me away with this one...  "Because of the gift God gave us.  Actually, He gave us a lot of gifts, but the big ones were salvation and the Holy Spirit."  If you know my son, you know that the word "actually" was said in his most Holy Homeschooling voice.   
A few days after this conversation, I stumbled across an article that, if put into practice, could revolutionize Christmas around the Bost Homestead.  It tackled the idea of just giving three gifts, AND correlating them to the gifts the Magi brought Jesus.  Here's a link if you want more information:
http://www.crosswalk.com/homeschool/11642237/
I think a $15-20 stocking from Santa could dovetail well with this if your family practices that tradition.

Granted, I only read this AFTER a few trips to Target, but it has given us something to plan for next year.

My hope is that it will make our children more introspective and thoughtful when selecting their "gold" gift, and my prayer is that our Christmas morning will focus more on the bounty He has given us than the bounty we've bought for one another.

The First Day of Christmas...

Last week, my 8 year old went out to my van to retrieve some essential treaure he'd left there earlier in the day- not insulin or his Bible... I think it was a bakugon- and he left my interior light on.  The battery subsequently died and now my CD player/radio doesn't work.  Part of his punishment for his carelessness is having to listen to me sing.  I know I could call the Honda people and let them talk me through resetting it, but I've kind of enjoyed the forced conversation.  I'm also kind of expecting God to send me a song to sell to someone.  True story- that's where "Indescribable" came from- a broken radio...

Anyways... he and I were trying to remember all the "12 Days of Christmas" which sparked the question, "Is 12/25 the FIRST day of Christmas, or is 12/14 the first, making Christmas Day be the LAST?".  I could probably look that one up, but would rather assume what's most convenient for me, and say that today- December 14th- is the first day of Christmas...

So.... here's the first of my 12 Days of Christmas posts...
On the first day of Christmas, God blessed me with... a sweet party with new and old friends!

A few nights ago I attended a party billed as a "Crazy Ornament Exchange".  I LOVED watching 18 women playing Dirty Santa with some pretty high-fallutin' tree trimmings!  Of course, there were sassy ornaments adorned with feathers, and cute, kid-friendly light-up ornaments, but the most sought after embellishments were decorated with crosses, mangers, and Scripture.  This is thegame where you can open a new box or "steal" an ornament that was already in circulation.  I've never seen so much holy theft!  I observed these women coveting and persuing these garnitures not only as something to beautify their home or remind them of a dear friend, but as a testament to their desire to present Christmas as a time to celebrate Christ's birth.  As the oldest woman there- yep, I checked- I was so encouraged to see all those young moms that are daily trying to walk with God.  In this time of year of reading about "The Grand Gesture" (i.e.: going to Haiti to care for the sick, etc.) I needed to be reminded that MY mission field is 4120 Colony Woods Drive.  God has called me to teach, train, encourage, and support the five people I am blessed to share my home and life with!  Any opportunity a woman has to point their children, husband, and house guests towards Jesus needs to be taken, even if it's by a piece of porcelin nestled into a Douglas Fir. 

Thanks, J, for a wonderful evening, and for reminding me of my calling!!