Christmas ramblings!

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. I love the lights, the trees, the candy, the presents, all of it! I do know that Christmas isn't about all these things, but I love them anyway.

I also love to give gifts. I love to find the perfect gift for someone and to watch them as they open it. Even if I'm not the giver, I love to watch others receive. Sometimes it is hard to wait.

One year, I knew what my dad had bought for my older brother and I couldn't wait for him to finally open it. Being a young adult, he was acting all cool about it and was really slow in the opening part. It was killing me! I kept repeating, "Open, open, open!" (that was the year Mervyn's had the commercial where the woman would stand at the door and say that).

When I was a young mom with only 2 kids, I did the Santa thing. One year, I was telling my step-mom about the gifts I purchased for the kids. I bought one of them a deeply desired game for the game boy and the other a Barbie carnival thing. She asked if those were the Santa gifts and I said "No, Santa is bringing them clothes." She was shocked and told me that Santa was supposed to bring the biggest, best gift. My response was "I don't want some mythical guy getting the credit for these great gifts! I want them to know I picked them!" This is one of the reasons we don't do Santa now. :) Remembering this always makes me laugh!

We have 8 children to buy for now. And, we simplify the giving. We give our kids 3 gifts and their stockings. One is something to wear, one is something to read and one is something they want. The something to wear is always pajamas and we open this on Christmas Eve.Then we have cocoa and watch a movie. This is one of my favorite traditions we have in our family.

Our hope is that the 3 gifts helps them to remember that the wise-men brought Jesus 3 gifts that first Christmas so long ago. Just a small way to keep the heart on what's important.