Christmas Story

Christmas was great at our house: lots of family, food and fun. There were lots of gifts as well. I guess my great granddaughter was the best at opening hers. She said, “Just what I asked for.” and “Just what I wanted.” for just about every gift.

After the eating and gift giving, the television was on most of the day repeating showings of the movie with the kid who is desperate to get a bb gun for Christmas. That film has some great classic scenes. The main theme, of course, is the kid is determined to do all that he can to assure that he gets the gift he really wants. The commercials during the movie seemed to back up that theme. They painted the days between Christmas and New Years as like a great adjustment period. It’s the time you trade in what you got for what you wanted. In some cases, you “upgrade” what you got for something a bit better and, of course, a bit more expensive.

I get the whole gift giving thing. It’s such a tradition that it will likely continue until Christ comes back. But it just seems to me that Christmas is a time for considering all that we have, instead of all that we want. It was great to be surrounded by happy, noisy, smiling faces of people that I love more than life itself. It was great to be here. I guess the only real shift we need to make, since gifts will be with us always, is to shift to the joy of giving from the joy of getting. One of my great thrills was my grand daughter who took some money she got and had purchased special gifts for everyone. She’s got the right idea. Way to go, Sammie.

I saw a great sign on Facebook this morning. Christmas isn’t a day. It’s a season. So keep celebrating.

And be blessed. Remember, the kid didn’t shoot his eye out.

Nick