This year, Christmas was "smaller". I guess an explanation of last year's Christmas will help illustrate. In 2009, Christmas was BIG. Bigger than in many years prior. My parents have six children, all of whom are married or have a significant person. The couples who are married all have two or three children. My uncle and aunt were here (my father's brother and his wife) and we did it up BIG! It has been some time since I have given more than an ornament to my nephews and nieces. Even longer since I've given gifts to my siblings. Well, last year I had a blast (and paid cash for those of you in Financial Peace University)! We gave gift cards and hotel stays and toys....It was fun! We gathered together in one home to share food, tease each other and laugh together. It really was fun! I love to give presents and I don't mind getting them either. ;)
God has worked in our hearts and lives, giving us freedom to be more flexible in our expectations and traditions. Too often we hang on to the past causing us to miss out on something wonderful and new. s Christmas can be whatever we decide it to be.....always centered (for us) on the birth of Jesus, but not necessarily the way it "used" to be. Years ago, my tax bracket was well under the poverty line. Because gift cards had become popular, my daughter and I often did Christmas on the 26th or 27th catching all the sales with the cards people gave us. Our true gift was spending the day together and sometimes including one or more nieces.
One year, as a single mother of a then 10 year old daughter, I wanted my daughter to enjoy the holiday regardless of the number of presents under the tree. As an answer to prayer, God gave us a vision on how we could still exchange gifts without spending big bucks by hitting the "freebies" on Black Friday. We scored at Big Lots with shower radios. Now, these were AM/FM with a large Big Lots logo in the corner, but we loved music in the shower (no CD player). Then, we visited JCPenney for the free snow globe and we discovered dollar stores....great stocking stuffers! These were perfect gifts! We wrapped two radios to put under the tree, filled stockings for each other with snow globes, shampoo and fine toiletries, then we exchanged them on "our" Christmas. Our Christmas was often some time during Christmas Eve Day. Thus, allowing my daughter to spend Christmas day with her father's family and offered me a welcome day of grown up time. Eventually, things got better financially, but that year is still a fond memory for us both (12 or 13 years later). We still try hard to grab the snow globes at JCPenney's each year.
This year, we all opted to spend time with our nuclear families and to limit gift giving between families. We said goodbye two weeks ago to a nephew entering boot camp, last month we said goodbye a niece headed to NYC to follow her dreams and another niece wanted desperately to see snow. Two families with young children opted to stay home (out of state), offering the young one's (and their parents) some peace and rest. So, we had a small, quiet and peaceful Christmas. It was fun! A foster son was home on leave from the Army, the other foster son was here after work and my UCF senior daughter spent the night. We opened gifts on Christmas Eve afternoon, included a good friend of my daughter's, ate dinner, then four of us attended Christmas Eve service (one foster son spent this time with his biological family and the friend had a ministry opportunity). It was truly a blessed day. Over the past week, we spent time with friends, individual families and together. It was really fun!
This year, my husband of two years and I spent Christmas day at a retirement village eating a fine meal in the dining hall. We were served as if in an upscale restaurant with white tablecloths, too many forks to count and treated like royalty. We were visiting my precious mother in law on Christmas Day. It was a tremendous blessing filled with stories, jaunts and wonderful memories. We met new people, heard their stories and learned how God had used them in their younger years as well as how He is working through them now. It was fun!
So, this year was smaller in many ways, but all in all - it was BIG!
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