Amy, Robert and Bryson: Happy Birthday Jesus!

Every Christmas Eve growing up, my mom would always cook us a homemade dinner (which we would eat by candlelight), then my dad would read us the Christmas story from the Bible followed by all of us singing Christmas songs. But before dinner, we always made a birthday cake for Jesus and decorated it. Of course my parents helped us decorate it but me and Robbie did the majority of it. After we would read from the Bible and sing Christmas songs, we would light the birthday candles and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. It is one of my favorite memories growing up and was something I always knew I would do with my children. Last year, Bryson was too young to enjoy it, so this was our first year to do it. We did it on December 23 since we were going to be super busy on Christmas Eve, but I don't think it really matters when we do it, as long as we always remember the true meaning of Christmas and make sure that's what we teach Bryson. Presents and food are great, but the most important thing about Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ and spending that special day with our families. This year we also got to celebrate early with our friends Peter and Kate. After we decorated the cake, Bryson got to spend the night with his Aunt Lisa and me and Robert went over to Peter and Kate's for a fun night of playing board games. It was a lot of fun and nice break from all the Christmas chaos.
Robert chose the cake flavor this year. He said he wanted chocolate cake with whipped icing. Well, Publix was out of just plain chocolate cake. The only thing they had left was Devil's Food cake, so I bought it. I didn't even think about the irony of making Devil's Food for Jesus' birthday cake until Robert brought it up, and then I felt really bad about it. I'm sure God will forgive us seeing as how we bought the cake for a good reason. When we first started decorating the cake, Bryson wasn't really too sure what was going on. He really just wanted to stick his fingers in the icing and lick it, but as soon as Robert starting writing on the cake, he became very interested. Since he's still pretty young, the only thing he could really do was the sprinkles (hopefully he can do more next year), but he sure did enjoy using the sprinkles, and he did a great job. We then lit the candles and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. Bryson knows a little about baby Jesus from his Little People Nativity Scene we bought him earlier in the season, but still not a whole lot. My hope is that by doing this every year, he will understand why we celebrate Christmas and that it's more than Santa Claus and presents.