Saturday, December 25, 2010

No Gifts & First There were 4...

I mentioned in a previous post that this year we were "cutting back" on Christmas... one of the biggest changes was decided with our siblings NOT to exchange gifts. We gave gifts to the children of the family and reasonable gifts to our parents, but not to each other.

I have to be honest.... it was weird...

Not that we've ever lavished gifts on each other, but to be empty-handed during gift giving with our siblings is strange...

uncomfortable.

Yes, even when it was mutually decided on.

Christmas Eve we attended a service at church. Brian lead the devotional time with some characters of the Christmas story; a story I have know almost all my life but had never noticed before. He highlighted the shepherds of the Christmas story.

As the shepherds obeyed the angels and "rushed" to find Baby Jesus....what did they bring Him?? What did they bring to the ONE the ANGELS of HEAVEN told them about? What did they bring to God's SON???

See, the wisemen brought costly and symbolic gifts...

But the shepherds brought NOTHING..... NOTHING...

Christ's 1st visitors brought Him NOTHING!

Of course their visit was filled with obedience( to the angels' directions), awe (at the birth of God's Son) and joy! And then they shared the good news with those they saw!!

So some of my "insecurity" about not having gifts for our siblings were comforted and we were able to enjoy visits with our families.

Brian's brother and sister-in-law on Christmas Eve...



And then my crazy growing family on Christmas afternoon...

my dad leading a devotion before presents
(so precious since he became a Christian later in life, after I finished college!)


My favorite kid and presents pics of the day (some at our house, some at my parents!)





These were soo precious (stinks they are fuzzy)... Hannah Grace wasn't 100% but she was soo excited to get a baby from Grammie and Pey:)














I grew up in a house that had 4 kids...

when we're all together with our families now, it really doesn't seems like a big crowd. But looking at a picture of all of us together... fiances included:) We've got a crowd and are still growing... :)

3 comments:

Drea said...

We did the non gifts at Travis' families once or twice too. Instead of us exchanging with his siblings (he has 3) - we put money towards a charity, which was neat... I dont know why this year they decided to do gift exchange... we just went along.

It was fun doing the dirty santa gift exchange tho LOL - my poor dad had all his gifts stolen :) - but really enjoyed that.

So that fellowship was awesome... this was the 1st year his dad cried when talking to the group,t hats never happened! he is not the most emotional man but since becoming a believer (after Travis was out of high school) he has really changed! his hard heart is so soft now.

Even our 1st few years of dating i never saw his dad play with the grandkids or be huggy... now he is... its awesome.

any who.. our kids get spoiled at Christmas.. and I wish they didnt... but for me i cant break the tradition my parents had or Travis' family.. thats just what they do... I dont give them a lot, Travis does :) - seriously, he had 4 gifts I had no part in picking.. he did it all.. I got them a few $5 stockign stuffers and helped pay for the trampoline, thats all...

Its just one of those family things that we have to try to find balance with as the years pass... we wil figure it out one day :-)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE your coat!!

i will say, this year our kids got LESS than ever before, so thats a good sign we are in the right direction :)

Bunch of Barrons said...

Love this...and I also love your new layout and header!

Anonymous said...

Great post. We really cut back too, but Kennys parents will not cut back. The boys were so spoiled. We even told them not to get them alot.