If it were easy ... Consider Christmas Part 2

You’ve heard of the five love languages right? There are basically five ways that people feel loved and one of the ways I feel love from people is when they spend time with me. So the way we did Christmas last year appealed to me because I got to show people love in the way I feel loved – how selfish is that?

I gave Anna a day at the zoo and it was an amazing day. I gave Tori a concert ticket of her choice and we went and saw Sara Bareilles, Ingrid Michelson and others. We had a good time listened to good music. I signed Jakeb and I up for the Hog’s Hunt 25k and we had an awesome time training for and running a race through Huntsville State Park together.

I think the kids enjoyed their gifts from me but I have a feeling I probably got more from my presents to them than they did.

My favorite gift given to me was a Bible. Andrea bought a journal and she and the kids hand wrote some of my favorite passages in it. To know that they took the time to write some of the words I love so much and to know that they know me well enough to know what to write was very meaningful.

It is so easy to break out the credit card or spend some cash to buy those on my Christmas list the latest gadget or a cheese slicer or something. And like Andrea said that is not always wrong. In fact this year we are doing a version of Christmas that looks like what we have always done while being mindful of what we learned last year.

To do Christmas the way we did it last year was hard work but it is a Christmas we will never forget. And even though it seems a bit self-righteous for us to tell you about it, we hope we can help inspire others to do the same and experience Christmas at a different level. It is like someone told us about moving overseas – “if it were easy everyone would be doing it.” It is worth the work.