I just love Christmastime!! It is a time for sharing time with family and friends, and most of all, celebrating the birth of Jesus. Our lives have become so incredibly busy so it's nice to slow down and catch up on some much-needed rest and quality time with the fam.
One of the traditions that I had in my family growing up was that my brother and I would get new PJs and slippers every Christmas Eve. They were the only present we were allowed to open before Christmas morning. I looked forward to it every year. We have continued this same tradition in our family. My daughter LOVES horses so I found these horse PJs at Academy and they were perfect! My son is not so much of a PJ man, but he does love shorts and a t-shirt.
When our children were preschoolers, my husband and I felt as if the kids were just filling their Christmas lists with "stuff", not really things they really wanted. So, we decided that we would start a new Christmas tradition-- we would give our children 3 gifts as the wise men in the Bible did. And you know what happened? We found that we began talking about the real Christmas story so much earlier in the Fall and the children, even in their young minds, understood the reason! They began focusing on what they really wanted and also they learned the real meaning of Christmas. What a blessing that decision has been to our family.
Here we are about 6 years later, and my children are 12 and 9 and their focus remains on the celebration of our Saviour's birth. I was so thankful, on Christmas morning, as my parents were here with us, to hear my husband start off our day with reading the Christmas Story from the Bible in Luke and Matthew. Then, we sang "Happy Birthday to Jesus" before anyone opened a single gift. I pray that my children will carry this tradition on to their families for generations to come.
I'm excited to see what is in store for 2010!
