Grateful

Our adventure to the photography studio sucked the life out of me. Should I have just skipped the professional pictures?  As cute as they are, I could have just as easily printed out my own photos.

Perhaps I had lost what Christmas is about, even if for just a moment.

Recently Miss J asked me why we give gifts at Christmas.  I explained that it came from the Christmas story of the three gifts being brought to the baby Jesus.

"Then why do we buy so much?  Why don't we just give three gifts? Maybe then we would think more about the gifts we gave and we wouldn't just buy stuff for the sake of buying stuff. I appreciate what you get me, but I really don't need it all."

She had a point.

Each year our church gets together to buy gifts for senior citizens who are needy.  A tree is set up at the church will the name of a senior on a tag and an item they would like to receive.  Each year I Miss J and M pick a tag off the tree and we buy the gifts.  We've done this since they were very young.

One day we were at church and Miss J had wandered away from me.  I didn't pay much attention until she returned with a handful of tags from the tree for the seniors.  She was so proud that she had selected the tags herself and that she had written her name down on the list showing that she had committed to these people.   I began to panic a bit.  I was proud of her good intentions, but began to fear this might get a bit expensive.

Before I could say a word, Miss J said, "Don't worry mama.  I am going to buy these with my own money."  She did just that.

Thank you, Miss J.  Thank you for teaching me your simple but valuable lesson:  Expect less. Give more.

Holiday Spirit:  Restored.