Should Christians do Santa, or not?

Some Christian groups are quite vocal this year for everyone to "put Christ in Christmas."  They are offended by Santa Claus.  Years ago I even heard people say that Santa is an anagram for Satan.

There are blogs about removing all Santa from your holiday expressions.  Oh, excuse me. I mean Christmas celebration.

What I have found out is that neither choice - Santa or no- is more moral or right than the other.

Refusing to "do" Santa did not make my older children any more holy and pure.  While it made us more acceptable to fellow Christians,  it did alienate us from some non-Christians. Most non-Christians didn't care, but they certainly were not more drawn to us or our faith.

lovingly hand-knit by Grannie

Loosening up some of my religiosity and stepping into the social world outside has released me from all those rules that needed to be followed to make me acceptable to fellow church goers.  My kids are no longer explaining to poor unsuspecting families that Santa isn't real and they need to only believe in Jesus, which by the way is a QUICK way to lose friends and influence people against church.

So what now?  Now we visit many different families, of all cultures and churches. We enjoy going to Christmas tree lightings and Santa parties with them. We even go to Hannukah parties. We haven't lost our faith.  I tell you, if this "faith" in Jesus requires brainwashing then how is it faith?

Santa will be bringing the kids' gifts this Christmas morning.  We even transitioned from "playing a Santa game" in the "tradition of St. Nick" to just flat out telling the baby that Santa was bringing her gift.  We have a lot of fun- all the children who never had Santa especially think it's a huge hoot to take the littles to see Santa, help them write letters to Santa, and just plunge into the wonder of it all.

It's not like Christmas is even a particularly Christian holiday anyway-  how exactly is it like Jesus to spend the month shopping, decorating with baubles and hoping for stuff? It's an American holiday, and America uses Santa in it.

Lu Ann's Candied Popcorn Balls

You have to try these.  They've been a tradition at our house, from my mother-in-law.

Lu Ann’s Candied Popcorn Balls ½ c unpopped popcorn (10 c popped) 1 ½ c salted peanuts (0ptional, but add more popcorn if no nuts) 1 c light corn syrup ½ c sugar (in the old days I used ¼ c honey instead) 1 3oz pkg Jello (your choice) Pop the corn and toss it with the peanuts in a LARGE BUTTERED BOWL (margarine ok) Combine corn syrup and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add the pkg of dry Jello, stirring until dissolved. Drizzle syrup mixture over popcorn and mix well.  Let cool just until easy to handle.  With BUTTERED HANDS (you needs to rebutter between each ball you make), shape into balls.  Put on waxed paper til cool enough to wrap or stack. Makes 18 balls 2 ½ diameter.  115 cal each

Horrific Winter Hands

Do your hands get horrible in the winter?  Mine can. I think it's genetic. My man's hands are always soft. Never need lotion. I remember my grandfather would have little bits of tape on his fingers, covering up splits in the skin. He was always rubbing Camphor Ice onto his knuckles. Camphor Ice was always in my house- several in each room. Sadly Camphor Ice is a relic of the past.

This year I have found a neat substitute!  I learned (the hard way) some years ago that "expired" sunscreen does not protect you from sunburn.  But I hate to throw away sunscreen.  The waterproof stuff is just not a "lotion" you want to use if you don't have to... right?

Enter the winter hands.   Waterproof sunscreen may not protect us on a day at the beach-  but it is a GREAT hand lotion in the winter.  Mine is True Blue Spa from Bed, Bath and Beyond. It doesn't feel sticky and nasty, it actually feels kind of silky.  But the best part is, it seems to protect my hands longer and better than any other hand lotion I've ever used in the winter.

Plus, it is a great way to use up the summer's sunscreen instead of tossing it in the trash!

Works for me!

Linked up to WFMW at http://wearethatfamily.com/.

Public schools and high-stakes testing

My letter to the editor regarding the state of KCMO Schools:

The MAP test and other similar high stakes tests have done absolutely nothing to help children learn, and instead they tie teacher’s hands. MAP tests and state takeover undermine fundamentals of democracy (Strauss, “The complete list of problems with high-stakes standardized tests,” WashingtonPost.com,11/1/11.)

I wonder if James would fail the tests, like Strauss reports in “When an adult took standardized tests forced on kids” at WashingtonPost.com, 12/5/11.

Homeschoolers know the truth- if you want parents to be accountable to their children’s education you must put the parents- not the Testing Industry or the state- in charge of the education. This means getting RID of the beaurocracy. Get RID of standardized curriculum. Get RID of red tape. Get RID of the tests.

Why do homeschools succeed where public schools fail? They take individuals into mind, not classrooms full of standardized children. Choices are made by people who intimately know the children. Parents pick from myriad curriculum or eschew curriculum and pick and choose individual learning resources.

How can we apply this to our public schools? Let the teachers get to know the students and pick the curriculum that matches their teaching style and the children’s learning styles. Let the parents pick their schools and teachers according to what works best for their individual familes or even individual children. (For instance, I have 7 children who attended 3 different schools + homeschool last year, and this year 2 different schools + homeschool.)

How do we know what children are learning? How do we know it’s “working”? Look at the children. Listen to the children. Just pay attention to the *people* rather than sheets of data. The results will speak for themselves. You know as well as anyone that as soon as the Spelling Bee or Geography Bee winners are announced, people say “Bet they’re homeschooled.” Colleges know~ that’s why the best colleges have admitted homeschoolers for decades and now actively recruit homeschoolers.

But homeschoolers as individuals sometimes lack, due to financial constraints, something public schools have– inspirational mentors and teachers, dedicated labs, dance teams, orchestras, math bowls, chess teams, debate teams, robotics and science clubs. My kids have eventually transitioned into public schools so that they have access to those things that require group participation that I could not afford to access through homeschool channels. In the states of Washington and Colorado, homeschooled students have the options of a hybridized education where the parents can enroll their students in individual academic classes and/or extracurricular activities but still homeschool for all the rest. Those parents have something MO parents should have.

I fully support public school as an ideology- but not the dinosaur of an institution built for an entirely different world. It was public school teachers that so inspired my own son that he is applying to colleges as an education major. I do think that KCMO Schools can learn from homeschooling- Very few homeschoolers submit their children to the high stakes, standardized tests, and even those that are required by law (in other states, not MO) to have their children tested, they do not “teach to the test” or choose curriculum that matches the test questions. My homeschool friends will even throw away the envelopes with the scores, without looking at them.

Test scores have so little to do with learning… that my opinion is that if you are going to allow testing in your school you may as well also put an Xbox in each classroom and publish the high scores kids get on them.

My friend Nota Supermom mentioned on her blog recently that her floor smells like cat food.  Mine does too.  Because in the course of one day, the cats managed to knock over the container the kids left out, spilled their food all over the floor, then ate half of it, then proceed to vomit it all back up all over the floor.

Yeah.  Some days are like that.

There was this one time when my youngest son had rotavirus, and he threw up every other day for about 5 weeks. After the first couple weeks, I got good at seeing the signs.  It's like Elimination Communication.  I would just sense he was going to blow chunks, and I'd jump up and grab a bowl and stick it under his face.  My gay best friend was sitting at my table eating supper when I demonstrated my prowess, about halfway through the virus. He was so impressed and to this day thinks I'm some kind of clairvoyant.

That's us moms.  The puke whisperers.