The Spirit of Christmas

When I was a child I always looked forward to Christmas. The lights, the tree, the PRESENTS! I would always be amazed Christmas morning at the mounds of gifts under the tree. I think some of that had to do with the amount of people in my family. Put six kids and two parents and all the gifts together and it is going to be a pretty impressive stack. My family never had lots of money, but my parents were somehow able to make it stretch enough so that we felt blessed on Christmas morning.

I am struggling with that now that I have my own family. I feel blessed in my life, but the past couple of Christmas' have reminded me that we just don't have the funds to do even a little bit extra at Christmas. I want my daughter to feel the excitement that I felt as a child and the blessings that Christmas brings. I feel thankful that she is only 18 months and does not really have a concept of that yet. She will be happy with just a couple of things. I guess it is really me that is feeing sad about not being able to buy gifts.

I have been trying to remind myself that Christmas is about more than just presents. It is about Christ being born and what that has done in my life. I would not be who I am without Christ. I am so thankful and blessed by Him. That love and goodness that I feel in my life makes me want to give and share with others too. But, at this time in my life I am not blessed with monetary blessings that allow me to do that. I can hope and look forward to a time when that will be something I can do, but for now I need to be grateful for what I do have.

God has blessed me with a wonderful husband, and daughter. Our parents and brothers and sisters are also very close to us and that is a rare blessing. Our friends are scattered throughout different states now, but we are still bonded with them and are close to some still. We are looking forward to welcoming a new baby into our lives this summer. We have shelter and food and basic necessities for life. There are those that are not blessed by even a fraction of what we are. Thank you God for all you have given us this year! Help me remember the true Spirit of Christmas, Jesus!

This is new

Well, I don't know how much I will actually write on this site. I have enjoyed reading other people's blogs so I thought it might be fun to have this to try out myself. It is kind of intimidating knowing that someone might read what I write here. I don't know if I will measure up to other blogs that I have read, but I am willing to try. This will be an experiment for me. I am a mom of one 15 month old girl named Madeline. She is the cutest kid I have seen, but I am not very objective in that area. My husband Mike has been writing blogs and is probably not expecting me to do this. I don't know if I will even tell anyone much about this until I can come up with some interesting things to write about. I am working on naming my blog and am just hoping something catchy will pop into my head. I am sure something will.