My kids have grown up always knowing the real meaning of Christmas. It isn't Santa and shopping and sales. It's Jesus and his magnificent birth that we are celebrating. Most of our Christmas's though have been big gift holidays. Tom & I have always gone a little over board (he would say it was all my doing & I won't deny that) getting them everything they wanted. This year I really wanted to scale back. We talked in November about lack of time and tight funds and we discussed the possibility of opening gifts on new years eve instead of the 24th. They were absolutely ok with that. Completely understanding of the fact that Tom & I were both incredibly busy this time of year with work, work & church obligations. Then I prepared them for the quantity and that I was going to stick to a rule of two gifts each. Again they told me they would be happy with nothing so long as we were all together. And you know what, they meant it, that wasn't just talk.
We did not put up a tree, we did not put out any decorations. I did not wrap the two gift each that I bought them. We made no big production of them getting their gifts. And yet we had one of the most enjoyable holidays ever. We enjoyed a wonderfully moving church service Christmas Eve. We slept late on Christmas morning. We got to visit with friends and family. We sat around and laughed and celebrated as richly as we have any year.
I'm always surprised when I hear adults talk about what they "didn't get" and how short changed they felt at Christmas. And I want to say "stop acting like a 10 year old." And then I laugh thinking some of these people could take a lesson from my 10 (and 8) year old. I know I've got some tough times ahead of me with the teen years looming in the future but we are going to go into those years with a strong foundation. And I'm betting that is going to make all the difference. The most important job I have is to prepare my children for life, not just any old life but a good, productive, responsible life! I couldn't be more proud of them. I love you guys.


