Christmas

I’ve been asked a lot lately from my wife what I wanted for Christmas and I give her the same answer, every time, which is nothing. I don’t know if she is just not able to wrap her head around the fact that I have everything that I need. I have my family. I have my friends. I have two amazing little boys. What more do I need?

There are certain Christmas movies that I love watching every year and the Charlie Brown Christmas is one of them. And I dare say, I could probably recite a good portion of the movie if asked. But there is one part in the movie where Charlie Brown asks if anyone knows what Christmas is all about? And Linus sums it up pretty darn nicely.

I have been blessed beyond words. I have more than I will ever need. I have more things, things that do not matter. But there are people that are really struggling this year. Whether they do not have a home or heat for their home or enough food for their family. And then there are those that do not have enough money this year to provide gifts for their kids. Those are the ones that need things. They need the essentials of everyday life. They need food. They need a roof of their heads. They are the ones that we should be asking, what do you want for Christmas this year?

I have challenged my family to do 1 simple thing, help someone else out with the money that they were going to spend on me. Did my wife and I over do it for the kids this year? Maybe? Did my wife and I over do it for each other, not as bad as last year. But the real question is this, did my family help others and the answer is heck yeah we did. We have given more this year to charity to help those less fortunate than every before. And when the boys are older, and old enough to understand, I fully plan on taking them to a homeless shelter to serve those that are less fortunate. Because I want them to see and understand what Christmas is really all about.

 

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I happen to catch The Bible series last night on the History channel and towards the end of the movie, they showed Thomas and how he doubted that Jesus had returned and it got me thinking if I was a Doubting Thomas.

John 20:24-29

New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Appears to Thomas

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Do you find yourself questioning things, especially as it pertains to God? I have. And there might be times that I still do? But, I know that I doubt less than I did. I think that it is part of growing older and dealing with life situations and how my faith has increased.

But I am challenging myself to be less of a Doubting Thomas and more of a believer, and not just for myself, but more importantly for my kids. I want them to look at me as they grow older and see how I respond and how I have faith.  Faith is a hard thing, and like Thomas, it takes seeing to believe and there are times in life, that you can not always see things to know that they are real or that they will come to be.

So in this time of the Christmas season, a time where little children show us that they have faith in Santa Claus and the birth of Jesus, I hope to cast aside my doubts and believe more and take more leaps of faith.

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Growing up, the Friday after Thanksgiving, my family would venture out to a Christmas Tree farm and cut down our Christmas Tree. It is just something that we did, don’t know why? But it was our tradition.

You see, I don’t have a lot of great memories from growing up because of issues between my parents, but the memories that I do have pertaining to going to cut down a Christmas Tree are some of my favorites.  I remember that my sister and I would pill into the back of our station wagon, yes, I just outdated myself, and we would go and cut down a Virginia Pine.  My sister and I would each pick out a tree and then our parents would decide which tree we cut down and took home. I sometimes don’t remember what I ate for lunch today, but I can remember running around the farm finding a tree just like it was yesterday.

As I have gotten older and even when I moved to Texas, I continued that tradition of going to cut down my tree after Thanksgiving. But, when I got married, I got married to someone that grew up having an artificial tree. I don’t ask for  a lot and I’m pretty accommodating, but I draw the line at artificial trees for Christmas and out of the 8 years that we’ve been together, we have a form of a live tree 7 of the 8 years.  And I say somewhat of a live tree because, for 5 years, we’ve purchased table top live Fraizer Fur trees.

But this year, this year was different and it was my wife’s idea. One day before Thanksgiving, she mentioned about us going to a Christmas Tree farm to cut down a tree for the boys. She thought that they were old enough and big enough, to not take down the tree. So, that is what we did, except for going and cutting down the tree, as we found a local farm that had some pre-cut trees. And thus far, the boys have loved the tree.

Every morning, as we bring the boys down to the living room, the first thing that they say, most time even before we get to the living room, can we turn on the lights? The boys have really seemed to enjoy the tree and lights and we even let the decorate the tree.

So to the start of new traditions and a future of getting a Christmas Tree together as a family and starting the Christmas season. And more importantly, I hope that this starts a family tradition for the boys, that will carry over to when they grow older and have families and children and can pass down this tradition as well.

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I know that the boys are still way too young to have the first clue about Christmas, but for the first time in years, I’m really looking forward to it.

I don’t know who will be the bigger kid, me or them on Christmas morning?

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Today was everything that I had hoped. The boys had a great Christmas day, we went to church as a family, we were able to see and spend a lot of time today with family and friends as well. And isn’t that what Christmas is all about?

As I reflect on the year thus far, we have been truly blessed. We have our health, we have two wonderful and healthy boys and we have a wonderful support system.

I am taking the rest of the week off to spend time with the boys and family. So from my family to yours, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years.

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As I type this out today, I sit with excitement in anticipation of my sons 1st Christmas. The boys will have no memory of tonight. We will take the boys to church tonight for the Christmas Eve Family Service at 5pm, then we will feed them, put them down at 7pm and then I will return to church at 11pm for the late service. The 11pm Christmas Eve service that I started attending when years ago and it is just a tradition that I will continue as long as I live.

And to keep with tradition, I am pretty sure that I’ll be checking on Santa’s progress with NORAD throughout the night, I just never disclose that I am 35 when I email and ask for updates of when Santa will be in our area. I can’t help it, I’m a big kid too. I’ll stay up late watching It’s A Wonderful Life when I return from church after midnight and fall asleep sometime after 3am. A few hours of sleep is all I will need, as I can not wait until Christmas morning and seeing the boys play with new their toys.

From my family to yours, Merry Christmas.

 

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As I’ve stated previously, we are on a budget this year and for years to come. Our financial goals have changed and we have to change with them. We now are trying to pay down debt and save for the boys future, so our view of Christmas shopping had to change as well.  In a day in time where our society is over spending, we decided to take a different approach.

With only 10 days away from Christmas, my wife and I decided that this year we are giving photos of the boys to our immediate family. To save money, we took the photos, had them printed for about $0.10 a piece and then bought frames, which were on sale. Then for the rest of our friends and family, we decided to have people over for dinner one weekend. As we get older, the need to receive a gift lessens and the need to be with friends and family increases.

With this being our boys first Christmas, we have decided to get them a few small things, as we have found out that their grandparents will be getting them the more expensive toys. I think that it is more important to spend less on them this year, when they don’t really understand what Christmas is yet.

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