Christmas

[Nicki]

It has been said that IF we Did know the exact date of Christ's birth -- there would be a tendency to worship the Date and not the Event. Like -- there are those who have a great family Bible and put it in a place on honor in their home -- but they Never open it up and Read it. They might even use it to store important family papers --but don't open it to Read it.

Yet -- Christmas is when Jesus Christ Did come into this world -- 'God with us'. A tremendous event in history -- His death on the cross and His bodily Resurrection is really the Main event. Without the 1st event -- there wouldn't be the 2nd event.

And the gifts giving -- the example given by the shepherds who brought gift to the Christ child. The principle is Wonderful -- the monetary gift extravagance is crazy. Why do parents go 'all out' for their kids' and feel they Have to get The Perfect gift -- the Most Popular 'whatever'. Maybe we Could try sitting down with our kids and reading to them. Baking cookies together. Simple family stuff.

Those are good activities but my kids would see them as pretty everyday stuff. The thing is kids as they get older kind of need new things to occupy them and even help them develop, and Christmas and birthdays are good times to give them those. Of course they don't necessarily need the most popular toy or the thing they want most. I like to give mine some things that they want and some that are surprises - I don't buy them much in the way of toys and so on at any other time except their birthdays.

[crochet1949]

It's Good that your kids would see those activities as everyday 'stuff'. Cause there are Lots of families who are so busy with jobs, all kinds of after-school practices, etc, that they don't have time to Be a 'here at the same time' family. And some will see no problem with going into debt to get all the latest in electronic stuff. Then, again, the world of technowledgy changes so fast -- that's almost Is a necessity if a person wants to make a phone call. But, I've been surprised at the number of people who don't have any of those things. If they want to talk with someone they go visit them. They have a simple phone and that's that. We had some years that necessities were what they received. Grandma would send them more, but I'm Grandma now. And we're able to give Them a bit more. Merry Christmas