"Real" Christmas Gifts

I am not the traditional Christmas, mall shopper with Christmas list down to here? It is Christmas, and it is time to celebrate with family and friends and church and enjoying this holiday together with those you love. Am I the exception? I think not.

Christmas to me, was drawing names, and only one gift to adult family members and Christmas gifts to my children and grandchildren and enjoying their faces on opening these chosen gifts. The giving, not the receiving, is my idea of Christmas.

I shopped at some specialty shops for Karen for that one of a kind gift that she least expected. When she expressed her 'wish' to go home to North Carolina for Christmas, this was my big gift to her, making sure everything was OK with my extended family here in Birmingham and mine and Karen absence from the Nutter/Northcutt clan Christmas here. This trip and her family and their love for us at this special time is about the best Christmas they could give us and we could give them.

We drove back from North Carolina with a fullfilled feeling having celebrated Christmas we believe HE would want us to. We went to candlelight services together as a family joining in fellowship the Clark's friends at Northminster Presbyterian. This was our Christmas. The prayers, the special prayers, before each meal was said by different family members expressing their special thanks for the season. This is our Christmas.

The Sunday after Christmas, we again went to church together as a family and the service was our further commitment as Christians at this special time of year. Our lunch and dinner together with family that day was again our special Christmas. If it sounds like our life at Christmas is about church, you made the correct assumption. But that is US.

I hope you find family and strengthening of your faith your Christmas. It is a time of renewal and reminding each of us of the important things in this life. The receiving of gifts is fine, but the giving of gifts is even better. Before we left to go to North Carolina, our SS class found two families in need with a total of 5 children who may not have had a Christmas with our efforts. The first round of collections for them was $600.00 with others doing personal contributions. We paid for rent, a house payment, utilities, and gifts for all the children including clothes and toys. That is not me, but we as Christians taking care of those that have special needs. That to me is Christmas.

A phone call. I had told my friend John that I correspond with in prison, and he called me Tuesday night after Christmas. They are limited to a total of 5 minutes and it is a collect call but John sounded so good. He too has found his belief strengthened not weakened by this terrible time in his life. He talked of all the bible classes he has taken, the ones he has planned, and the schooling he is taking while in prison. He thanked me for the calendar, the stamps, the books, and most of all for the letters. He said so many do not get much if any mail and he shares everything to make someone else life a little better and a little lighter. Is that not what Christmas is all about?

My ramblings this am is only a sharing of what my life is all about. I have one of my sons coming home tomorrow with his family. I had a great time shopping for my grandson Rhett. Grandfathers still like to shop for toys once in a while. Karen and I met at ToysRUs and we got two more gifts last night to go with the ones we already had for them. This was or is my further extension of what Christmas is all about. I love my family, my friends, and their caring to share a part of their lives with me and with Karen. I think that is what HE would want our Christmas to be all about!