iman serna

Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year

From my family to you and yours...

Merry Christmas

&

A Happy New Year
 

Going to spend some quality time with my loved ones (family and friends that are family). See you guys next year!

Santa

Karen and I have stumbled upon a classic dilemma that's exclusive for this time of the year...most especially now that Troyer is around.

"Should we or should we NOT introduce Santa to Troyer?"

Growing up in the Philippines kinda made that decision slightly easier for my parents when it came to my "belief" of who good old St. Nick really is.

Here are a few factoids for ya:
Santa's white - most Filipino Santas are, for the most part, brown.
Santa's fat weight-challenged - most Filipino Santas are borderline emaciated.
Santa has long white locks and beard - Filipino Santas have cotton eyebrows and beard...which does NOT look weird at all matched with a brown face for backdrop...yeah...
Santa wears his patented red velvet suit for the cold temperatures - The Philippines is a tropical island...so, guess what? It's friggin' HOT so there's no need for a warm suit!
Santa rides a sleigh pulled by reindeers - Filipinos have Jeepneys, Kalesas, Tricycles and Buses...no sleighs, why? Because it's friggin' HOT and there's no snow...read above reason for further enlightenment.

Well, you get the point.

But I digress...

We decided that we will include Santa into Troyer's Christmas mix BUT...and it's a VERY conditional BUT...Santa will act ONLY as an emissary, an ambassador, an agent of God. Santa will be God's "special assistant" to help Him give out some presents to kids on Christmas.
As a matter of fact I'll let you in on a little secret...shhhhhhh...Santa's gonna give Troyer a Veggie Tales Nativity Set for Christmas...shhhhhhh, please don't tell Troyer k?

We want Troyer to know that Jesus is the focus, the center piece and the one true reason for Christmas.

So the other day we went next door to the Bass Pro Shops to get a face to face with Santa...we heard he was there. This would be a perfect 1st time encounter for Troyer, not to mention the fact that they were giving out free pictures with Santa...I'm all about getting FREE stuff!

Anyhoo, we got to the front of the line and I was eager to see how my little boy will react to the big guy.

This is how it all went down...

A cropped version of the final picture...

Do you see Karen's big smile? That's because she was laughing so hard...that's as authentic a smile as you can get from her!

What's YOUR take on Santa?

Christmas Flava...

...it's in the air.

...it's in our church...destinychurch...

...i LOVE our church...

...i LOVE our band, they friggin' ROCK hard!...

...a little TSO flava fO yO mindz!...