Christmas Gifts

We love Christmas around here. It is certainly a special season of remembrance and celebration. To aid us to that end we do what most people do- we sing, bake, eat, laugh, decorate, and eat some more. And to top it all off we give gifts.

While we never want our family (children or ourselves!) to be greedy about gifts at Christmas, we do find that they hold great value as part of our celebration. We remember that God is a good God who loves to give good gifts to his children. So we try to gift good gifts to our children and to each other. No pressure, right? Well, really there isn't. But we do have fun with it and this year was no exception.

Josiah: Josiah got a couple of tubes of Gerber puffs- his first finger foods! We let him eat them under the tree on Christmas morning. This was the first gift under our Christmas tree. Sarah knew what they were and told him at every opportunity leading up to Christmas.

Sarah: A matching "big girl" plate and cup. The say "sweet pea" and have a picture of a smiling pod of peas. She is now helping set the table and (consistently) learning to drink from a cup.

Emily: I received awesome tickets to see the Nutcracker in Boston. This is what Dave (selflessly, not being sure he was a fan of ballet) gave me last year, but we had to give them away to make an unexpected trip to MS. But this year was even better. Since my parents were in town they watched the children and sacrificed hotel points so that we could stay the night. We had a nice dinner with a gift card from other family members. And to top it all off Dave genuinely liked the ballet!

Dave: For a few years now we have been toying with the idea of getting Dave a nice new camera. He was faithful to his hobby and diligent to learn new techniques regularly. The camera he had was used when he purchased it many years ago and painstakingly slow- not an asset when trying to photograph a toddler. We decided before Thanksgiving to take the plunge and he set out to find the best deal, which he found online the Friday after Thanksgiving. As such, he has been enjoying his gift throughout the Christmas season and we have been richly blessed by it. Oh, and when you see him with his fancy camera you can go ahead and say "happy birthday" too :)