The Clydes: December 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas. Jimmy carries out most of our traditions, so all I have to do is buy the kids their presents. It was surprisingly easy this year - each child gets two presents, and I bought them all on the Internet. I try to avoid malls and useless "stuff" out there being pandered to my kids, so I was in heaven being able to do it all from home.

Jimmy read a book called Jotham's Journey every evening to the kids during Advent, and they all loved it. He also continued the yearly tradition of making Christmas tree ornaments with them (while I napped :), despite my telling him that we'll soon run out of room on the tree at this rate. I made homemade egg nog a few times, homemade cocoa, and let them watch a few of the old clay animation Christmas shows. Then, on Christmas Eve, we all watched The Nativity Story.

Christmas morning they got to open their stockings (which contained a box of cereal, a chocolate bar, two mini M&M packages, a little mint, and one small toy) and then I let them have cereal for breakfast (gluten-free of course!). Let me just say that their love for cereal outweighs anything short of a Lego product. Wow.

Giving Back

We struggle with the hyper-consumerism of Christmas and the problem that kids tend to see it as the "gimme" season. So, we try our best to think of ways to thwart it. World Vision puts out a great catalogue every year with things to buy for families in Africa. This year, we went over the options with the kids. They pooled their money together and picked out a goat and two chickens.

After they opened presents Christmas morning, we rushed out the door and drove to Denver. Another family we know has been visiting a..... shall I say very cheap motel in East Denver every year and they let us join in. We knocked on all the doors and invited everyone to a Christmas meal in the parking lot. We served up turkey, stuffing, gravy, bread, and sweets. We also got to hand out lots of presents to the kids there. I don't think any of the families at that motel were planning on celebrating Christmas, sadly.

It was such a blessing to be able to do this and the kids loved it. It is enlightening for them to be able to see families who are living on the edge of poverty. Finding these serving opportunities is important in teaching our children about real joy, being content with what they have, etc. Joy is not the next "gift," "thing," "toy" that we want - joy is inside- and once we accept Christ as our Savior, joy is a choice.

We try our best to not spoil our children, but we definitely fail in this area a lot. About a year ago I served the kids leftovers, and they said, "We had this last night!" I realized right then and there that from that day forward they would have leftovers as much as I could possibly help it. They also have approximately two million Legos in their room right now, and they still always seem to want more! But, we're a work in progress...

I asked the children what their favorite part of Christmas was this year, and they said serving the poor people Christmas morning and getting to have cereal for breakfast. :) (I rarely buy cereal, and if I do it's only for a snack)

That was our day in a nutshell. I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas!