Entries in Life

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

This year, we gave our kids their major gifts early: a Wii and a TV after spending most of the year without one. And, other than those two items, we told them this would be a Chrstmas of hand-made gifts.

And this year, since I had been out of work since the beginning of November, it made a lot of sense.

I didn't know what to expect for Christmas morning. The kids dragged me out of bed, we read Luke's narrative of the Nativity, sang a couple of Christmas carols and then headed to the tree to open the gifts our children had given.

Like I said I didn't know what to expect: I had pretty much forgotten that we had told the kids they would be making their own gifts. And, as I found out later, Alexis didn't remind them of their responsibilities.

So it gave me a great deal of pride to see the gifts and their response. Our oldest daughter had knitted a cap for the youngest. The other daughter wrapped up some sugar cookies she had made earlier in the week. My wife wrapped up some Ferrero chocolates that we had bought.

I remember how I would have reacted had this been my Christmas as a child. Barely any gifts under the tree — you could still see the treestand, after all — I think the disappointment would have been only too visible on my face.

So when my son was overjoyed with the chocolates, when my daughter demonstrated the knit cap, I was almost bursting with pride. My children were happy with, even thankful for, practically nothing. (Sure, they had a new Wii and we had a new TV, but these were not the focus of their Christmas morning.)

When I see my children showing more maturity and thankfulness than I remember posessing when I was young, it makes me think that at least this one thing is right.