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.

Baby Steps

I have felt for awhile that God is calling me to do something, only I don't know what. I spent a lot of time wondering and praying about the what. Eventually, I realized that He wants me to start somewhere. He is asking me to take a step and see where it leads.

I believe one of those steps is to reach out and help a hurting person. I have been blessed to facilitate a group which helps people walk through grief. Having walked through grief myself, I can share with them the day to day struggles that come with healing. I can also be a light and a hope to how God can and will heal if we wait on Him and trust Him.

I still don't know where God is taking me, but I am taking His lead and have faith that He has something for me.

As we finish up our first session of our group, I'm reminded of God's grace and His great love for us. He walks with us through difficult times and comforts us as we allow Him to heal us. And then He brings other people to us to walk with in their difficult time. And I'm realizing that the greatest healing of all comes from reaching out and helping someone else. Amazing how He works.  

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." 2 Corinthians 1:3-4