Everything Christmas

Our challenge for the Scrappinmoms Idol 2 finale was posted in their blog yesterday. After arriving from a children's party my sons attended, i browsed through the scrappinmoms blogsite and saw the challenge requirement: "Everything Christmas". Now, this thought would probably bring good cheer to a majority of scrappers, maybe even the rest of the 9 finalists, what subject would be easiest to scrap, right? But not me. I stared at the challenge criteria and felt disconcerted to say the least. Don't get me wrong, i do have a lot of christmas memories as a child growing up in a catholic family, and they were all pleasant. I just don't feel comfortable scrapping the subject and its worldly traditions given my present faith and conviction.

Faith and conviction - those are two very big words that most people find uncomfortable to discuss and some even consider as taboo; But i would share them to you anyway. You see, i have converted to christianity about four years ago. Christianity you say? But isn't christmas supposed to be all about christianity? Its the celebration of Christ's birth right? Well.... Not to me, anyway.

You see, my faith involves not believing in any other doctrine but the Lord's and His doctrine is found in the Bible. I read the Bible everyday and try my bestest to follow what it says that i need to do in order to be saved. What has this got to do with christmas, then?

Well, i believe that it has never been known when the exact birth of Christ was, and for sure it wasn't on Dec. 25. Christmas, in all it wonderful celebrations and traditions has been celebrated way before Christ was born. How can it then be suddenly about Jesus and His birth?

"Some legends claim that the Christian "Christmas" celebration was invented to compete against the pagan celebrations of December. The 25th was not only sacred to the Romans but also the Persians whose religion Mithraism was one of Christianity's main rivals at that time. The Church eventually was successful in taking the merriment, lights, and gifts from the Saturanilia festival and bringing them to the celebration of Christmas.
The exact day of the Christ child's birth has never been pinpointed. Traditions say that it has been celebrated since the year 98 AD. In 137 AD the Bishop of Rome ordered the birthday of the Christ Child celebrated as a solemn feast. In 350 AD another Bishop of Rome, Julius I, choose December 25th as the observance of Christmas." (an excerpt from The History of Christmas found in holidays.net)

Because of my belief and conviction, we have no longer celebrated christmas how the rest of the world celebrates it. We do away with the trimmings and ornamants associated with the holidays (christmas trees, wreaths, santa claus). I do allow my children to participate in gift exchanges in school and relatives as i explain to them that this is done for the fellowship with other children. But, my children now know that Dec. 25 is not Jesus' birthday and that santa claus definitely does not exist. What i always tell them though is not to forego of the love, respect, sharing, and camaraderie that the holidays tend to bring and to practice goodwill to all men and celebrate Jesus' birth not just in december, but for the rest of the year as well.

"Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind." ~Mary Ellen Chase

I got In!

I woke up at 3am this morning and finding that my computer was still on, i opened the site that was to post the announcement for the finalists of the Scrappinmoms Idol 2 competition. To my excitement, i saw that the announcement has been made, and so i scrolled down and saw that I GOT IN! I wanted to shout at the top of my lungs! But, of course the rest of our household was sound asleep, not to mention that my children were in the same room with me, so i had to content myself with jumping up and down with excitement. Mind you, seeing a grown woman jumping up and down at 3:00 in the morning in her pyjamas, is truly a very strange sight. I'm just glad that i am the only one who was awake at that time.

So here are all ten finalists for Scrappinmoms Idol 2:

We are to convene in Manila on Oct. 4, 2008 for the finale. I just can't wait! I've already booked my tickets and i'm off to manila on friday! Woohoo!

My first ever blog post

This is my first ever blog post. I don't even know what i am doing. At least, not yet. But i am going to find out.

An online friend recommended that i do this. I have always been curious, but never got around to trying this for myself - until now. Well, i hope i'm good at this. I'm good at venting out and am strongly opinionated. Would that make me a good blogger? Is there such a thing as a good blogger? An interesting one, maybe? I've visited a lot of other blogs and like reading their posts. I hope you like reading mine, too.

I'll be back tomorrow, with an interesting topic, i hope. Until then!