Our First Christmas Together

Here it is, our first Christmas together as a family of 8!!! Amazingly enough, we are ready! The shopping is done, most of the wrapping is finished, and we have just two more items to assemble before the big day! In most ways, this is like any other year. We have made gingerbread houses, cookies and other goodies. The Elf has been moving from one hiding spot to another every day. The countdown calendars have been changing daily as the kids count down to presents! And the presents have been slowly appearing under the tree.

But this year there is a different feeling of excitement in the house. The kids are excited about presents, of course. But the new kiddos have an uncertainty of what to expect. They have asked questions like, “So just how many presents will we get?” They will tell us stories of Christmas’ past and study our reactions to see what we will say. And then there is the littlest one who picked up his present from under the tree and started hugging it and kissing it as if it were the best wrapped present he had ever seen.

Clearly we have no idea how their Christmas mornings have been in the past. There may have been a sea of presents under the tree or just a couple. But one thing we do know, this Christmas they have something that they have not had in the past- the understanding of the true meaning of Christmas. That really is the best gift of all.

Let us always remember that Christmas is not about the presents and the gifts, but about God sending His very own Son into this world to be our Savior. What an incredible thing it would be if we would worry less about the presents under the tree and more about sharing God’s love with others!

Matthew 1:18-23

Merry Christmas to you and your families!

Julie

Party of 8*