Presents wrapped and under the tree. Most of them anyway. Cards all mailed. I think. Candies made and goodies baked. Well, for the most part. Christmas concerts have been enjoyed. Goodies delivered to neighbors and friends. Family dinner planned. Travel arrangements made. The house has been decorated for a while and the lights are beautiful! Christmas movie after Christmas movie on TV. (What's up with everyone being named Noel, Joy, Chris, Nick or Buddy? And almost every movie is about a single parent or orphaned child, family with no money or baby about to be born. For some reason I seem to need to see them all!)
While some would argue that Christmas is commercialized, I'm starting to see it differently. Shopping is not even close to one of my favorite chores. This year however, shopping has been less of a chore and more of an adventure. I've approached it with more of a smile than a scowl. And that's because I've come to love and appreciate those I shop for more than I ever did before.
All these years I've been the one allowing stress and worry to creep into the mix. Every child had to have the same number of gifts. Not only that but every child had to have the same amount of money spent on them as the other children. New pictures needed to be made for grandparents. More stress as we tried to get smiles out of all the kids at the same time!
For a few years we tried to hide Christmas gifts until Christmas. But with a rather large family, that became a very difficult task. So we started putting them under the tree in the days and weeks leading up to Christmas. In order to keep the children from figuring out which gifts belonged to whom, I would come up with a mathematical equation involving birth weights, dates, school grade plus any other thing I could come up with. The answer for each child's equation would go on their gifts instead of their names. This was done in an effort to keep the kids from guessing what was in their gifts....if they didn't know who the gifts were for it would surely be harder for them to guess the contents. Of course we have very bright children and many years they would guess the answers before time to do their math and get their gifts. (Yes, they had to do the math before they could open their gifts!) They've also admitted to opening gifts well before Christmas when we weren't looking!
Gifts had to be wrapped perfectly. If at all possible, each person's gifts had to be wrapped with different types of paper. After all, as the gifts were being handed out, wouldn't it look bad if one person had 10 gifts, all wrapped with the same snowman paper? They would think I didn't care! And how about wrapping grandparent gifts in kiddie paper? No way! Bows had to match paper. Name tags had to match paper and bows. Corners had to be folded perfectly. Tape had to disappear when applied to the paper.
And then there were all the candies and goodies to make. For many years I have made divinity. Some years it turns out great. Some years I can't make it to save my life. This year I tried to contribute my success of 3 near perfect batches to just the right amount of humidity in the air. Then I made two more batches on a rainy day. I realized my success was more from my new attitude than it was from the weather.
Christmas is about giving. God definitely gave the greatest gift when
He gave us Jesus. Of course there is no way we can out give God. Even
if we gave our very lives, we couldn't even come close. But He put the
desire in us to give. I've come to realize that shopping for gifts for
my family is actually an act of love. Wrapping those gifts is an act
of love. Giving is an act of love. No more micro managing for me. Just loving and enjoying my family and friends. They too, are God's gift to me. Because He loves me.
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