That’s what I’m having with my family here in North Carolina.   We’ve had a lot of time together as a family doing various things. We’ve had meaningful time with both my and my wife’s families. My sister-in-law drove down from the D.C. area today–great seeing her.  We’ve eaten a lot of fast food–can’t get Taco Bell and Chic-fil-a back home.   Today is Eden’s 11th birthday.  What did she want?  Krispy Kreme doughnuts!  That’s my girl!  And the girls have had their first taste of Cheerwine, N.C.’s own soft drink.

To top it all off: Titus’ first Christmas in the States turned out to be a white Christmas with a decent snowfall this year.  When he awoke following the night’s snow:

Dad: Good morning, Titus.

Titus (dazed and rubbing his eyes): Megatron (that’s what he calls me), the first thing you have to do is get the sand out.

Dad (moving the blinds at the window): Look outside son.  [Blank stare from Titus] Do you see all that white stuff?  That’s snow.

Titus (instantly amazed and running out the room): SNOW BALL FIGHT!!  SNOW BALL FIGHT!!

Here are a few pics for the curious:

For the first time in about six or seven years, the family is headed to our roots for the Christmas season.  Should be fun.  It’ll be Titus’ first winter outside the Caribbean.  The boy is in for a rude awakening!  We’re praying for a white Christmas, and so far the weather seems to be cooperating.  Reports of possible snow fall on Christmas Eve.  Seeing snow fall would be a first for Titus, too.

I pray you and yours have a very merry Christmas for of awe, adoration, and anticipation for a Savior who dwells in the hearts of men!

In Cayman there is something called “the Christmas breeze.”  It’s this magical time of year, usually beginning late-November on into December, when the temperature hovers in the mid-80s and there is a steady cool breeze blowing over the island.  I’m sitting in our breakfast nook looking out the window enjoying the breeze blowing through.  It just dawned on me that this is what Christmas feels like to me now.

I love living in Grand Cayman. It’s felt like home for me and my family since the first day we arrived. The people of the Cayman Islands–especially First Baptist–have everything to do with that. In our experience, you won’t meet warmer, more hospitable people.

The first couple Christmas celebrations in Cayman took a little adjusting, though. Our first Christmas came 24 days after our son Titus was born. What a blessing it was to have such precious gift from the Lord in our home. My mother and mother-in-law were here with us for most of that December, blessing us in hundreds of ways as they helped out with the family.

The other Christmas celebrations required us to adjust to the weather. Somehow “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” just doesn’t fit in a sunny, 80+ degree climate. Even more incongruous are the inflatable snowmen in everyone’s virtually beach front yards.

But this year, I think we’ve finally settled into the Christmas routine of Cayman. It was perhaps the most “full” Christmas we’ve had in some time. There was a beautiful candlelight Christmas Eve service at the church, following a Christmas lights tour of the island. Christmas morning featured a little family time before going over to the church for the Christmas Day service. Nice time at home afterwards, and a lovely time at dinner with a large family. Had may favorite–Cayman beef, a traditional Christmas meal here. Yeah, I’m used to that! Another trip to a Christmas light show then back home for movie night with the family. This year we watched The Soloist, largely because the girls received a guitar and violin as gifts. (Movie review: Apart from a few scenes with profanity, a moving story about a homeless musical prodigy befriended by a L.A. Times reporter; one that touches home for me because of an uncle with similar mental health challenges).

But now it’s Boxing Day. I’m still getting accustomed to Boxing Day. It’s a bank holiday in the U.K., New Zealand, S. Africa and a couple other countries with Christian histories. Here’s part of the description from Wikipedia:

The name derives from the tradition of giving seasonal gifts, on the day after Christmas, to less wealthy people and social inferiors, which was later extended to various workpeople such as labourers and servants.

The traditional recorded celebration of Boxing Day has long included giving money and other gifts to charitable institutions, the needy and people in service positions. The European tradition has been dated to the Middle Ages, but the exact origin is unknown and there are some claims that it goes back to the late Roman/early Christian era.

In the United Kingdom it certainly became a custom of the nineteenth century Victorians for tradesmen to collect their “Christmas boxes” or gifts in return for good and reliable service throughout the year on the day after Christmas.

The establishment of Boxing Day as a defined public Holiday under the legislation that created the UK’s Bank Holidays started the separation of ‘Boxing Day’ from the ‘Feast of St Stephen’ and today it is almost entirely a secular holiday with a tradition of shopping and post Christmas sales starting.

Being new to the holiday (the U.S. doesn’t celebrate Boxing Day, so unless you live near Canada you probably get no exposure to it), I must confess some conflicted opinions of it. On the one hand, I’m all for a holiday dedicated to serving those who serve us so faithfully. On the other hand, though, the celebration after Christmas still seems to put such people “second” in the season. To the non-initiated, it feels like saying, “Happy Belated Christmas.” That works with birthdays, but feels odd with Christmas or demonstrations of appreciation. And now, the holiday appears to have become primarily about shopping and sales after Christmas.

Nonetheless, I’m the guy coming from the country that doesn’t have a similar day. So, I think it’s up to me to learn more and give more during this holiday.

If there are any readers out there with Boxing Day experience, what’s been your best Boxing Day memory? Or, how should a novice like me serve on Boxing Day?

Martha Stewart, after a brief stint on da block, is now baking brownies and droppin’ lyrics with Snoop D-O-Double G. Check it out here.

Chris Castaldo has a helpful post on this important opportunity and topic.

Last night wrapped up our choir’s Christmas cantata at the church. Tonight, they sing at the men’s prison and there is perhaps a couple other performances at other places around the island. It’s been a full week for the choir, and the Lord has sustained and blessed them powerfully. You can see it in the joy of the people who’ve come to the cantata. It’s been awesome. Here are a couple more pics (click the photo for bigger pic and better resolution):

This year, the Lord seems to be speaking to me these words over and over: “treasure and ponder.” Last week, a brother sent me a devotional study with this as its theme. I’d been noodling on it a little bit and decided to share it at our seasonal performances this year. So, at the Christmas recital for our young children’s program and our choir’s annual cantata, I’ve been sharing brief gospel appeals based on Luke 2:19–”But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

Today, Challies linked to a prayer from Scotty Smith on this same text. Read the prayer here. It thought it was encouraging and convicting.

Last night our choir had it’s annual Christmas Cantata. It’s no boast to say that their performance is outstanding every year. But last night was as moving and powerful a cantata as I’ve seen. The power in the voices and the lyrics was simply amazing.

I don’t have any video or audio yet–perhaps someone will post some soon. But here’s a pic from the Adams:

With the re-post yesterday, a few folks have asked in one way or another, “How do we help our children talk about our focus on Jesus rather than Santa without being self-righteous?”

What a great question. First, let me say, if you want answers without pride and self-righteousness, I’m not your best teacher. I’m certain others have written more helpful stuff and lived more consistently than I have. Perhaps we could all benefit from reading a book like Humility just before the holidays.

But here are a few things I thought about in response to that excellent and practical question.

1. Prepare your children before they’re in the situation. In general, I fall down on this way too much. Too much of my instruction comes after the fact. Consequently, it’s damage control or re-directing rather than insulating equipping. So, I’d encourage us all who avoid Santa to talk with our children about why we choose not to, giving them a sense of the superior joy of focusing on Jesus. And talk with them about the fact that many, many others–both Christians and non-Christians–do include Santa Claus in their Christmas celebrations. Be sure to explain that doing Santa doesn’t make a person a bad Christian, but that you think Jesus and the gospel are clearer without Santa. And part of our preparation, should be a little role play or instruction on how to respond when they’re asked things like, “What do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas?” When I used to train people on interviewing techniques, we used to teach people to think of the questions they would like not to be asked and decide how they’re going to answer them if they come up. That principle works here I think.

2. Don’t leave your children hanging; model the response you’re hoping for. Invariably, there will be that neighbor or friend who sees you in the grocery store and turns to ask that awkward question of your child. They’ll mean well and will do a pretty good job of engaging the child directly… bending down to eye level, smiling, and giving all kinds of joyful non-verbal encouragements. (We should engage children like this all the time, really). Your child will look at this smiling giant and then look to mom and dad with a silent plea, What do I do now! You’re the one leading this thing! Say something!

So, we should say something. Graciously, with a smile, bring the conversation back to adult-to-adult. And say something like, “At Christmas, we enjoy focusing on the birth of Jesus and what it means to the world?” Hopefully, that opens some opportunity to explain what it means. If your child is old enough and familiar with the gospel, you might even relieve the tension by turning to the child and asking, “Why did Jesus come? And what does that mean for the world?” But the point here is to encourage the parents to lead with a little modeling. We’re not out for Santa fights in the produce aisle of the supermarket. So, aim for something short, winsome, and simple so your child can emulate it.

3. Teach children to take an interest in the traditions of others. We can go on the “offensive” here as well. We should teach our children not to be in a defensive posture about Christmas celebrations, but to be in that people-seeking, gospel-communicating, offensive posture of the Great Commission. So, it’s good if we’re the ones teaching our children that people celebrate differently–some of that is cultural and ethnic, some of it is just preference. Some of it is well thought-out and reasoned, some of it is just cultural response. We can show genuine interest in people by asking what kinds of things they do to celebrate Christmas, and by asking how they came to embrace those practices. We learn about others and we hopefully deepen a relationship.

4. Finally, we have to teach our children how to handle objections. Well-meaning people, after hearing that you don’t do Santa Claus, will assume that means you don’t do joy at Christmas. They’ll assume you don’t give gifts or that you’re robbing the children. And they’ll sometimes give voice to these objections by asking the child something like, “Aren’t you gonna miss out on Santa and all the gifts?”

Here, we need to know two things. First, we need to know if our children are missing those things or longing for them. To what extent is materialism creeping into their hearts? Talking with them about this is helpful for us as parents apart from simply preparing for these kinds of conversations. And if they admit to struggling in this way, it’s an opportunity to do a little heart work with our children.

Second, we need to know if our children are prepared to respond in situations like this. These kinds of questions are actually a lot of pressure to put on a 3-, 4-, or 5-year olds. Answering towering adults who obviously disagree with you can be intimidating. So, again, we should be ready to step in and model a response. But we should also teach children how to handle objections and disagreements. Learning short answers can be helpful:

Q: “Won’t you miss all the presents?” Ans: “The best present comes from God in Jesus. That’s what we enjoy most.”

Q: “What will you do when the other children have lots of new toys?” Ans: “Share their joy with them, and continue to enjoy all the toys I already have.”

Q: “What’s wrong with believing in Santa?” Ans: “Others can. But I think it’s better to believe in real things that are wonderful and beautiful, like Jesus.”

Q: “Well, what do you do for Christmas then?” Ans: Fill in whatever your family does.

Whenever the child answers an objection graciously, joyfully, and honestly, affirm them. Join in by saying, “Yeah, that’s right. We….” Again, don’t leave them alone. Model how to respond and model that it’s a family tradition. Lord willing, that’ll pay off when they’re one day defending the gospel itself and sticking together with the family of faith.

Just a few thoughts. I’d love to hear from others.

How do you teach your children to talk about why you do or don’t include Santa in your Christmas celebrations?