The Real Santa
Now it's what is referred to as Black Friday and allegedly this is the busiest shopping day before Christmas. The fact is that I won't be one of the many people out there shopping. In fact I am purposely not straying away from home at all and this year our family has agreed: NO gifts for adults. That leaves two children who will receive a gift: one 13 and the other 5, my granddaughters. It is such a relief not to have to worry about spending a lot of money when in fact it is not neccessary and does nothing to add to the spirit or the meaning of the holidays. There may be an argument that the gift giving takes away from the meaning of Christmas and takes the focus away from what it really means: Love and God's birth.
Every year we have tried as a family to develope and different approach to the holidays and thank goodness this year we have accomplished an agreement. I myself am going to take some of my spending and make a contribution to a nearby homeless day shelter called WaySide. There the clients come in, pray, eat, wash chothes and are even given a chance to take a shower. I had volunteered there for a week and the thing that I most recall is how happy each person was and how light hearted each person treated the other. There was commaradary seldom seen betwen people who do have a place to live and are in a community that is prosperous. My intention is to take the money I spent last year on one person in our grab bag and buy some supplies for the homeless like plastic forks and knives or coffee or soap. It will feel as though I am doing something for people who have much less than me and who are struggling to make it from one day to the next. All be it people who have the ability to continue to smile and take things in stride.
I love Christmas and frankly I would likely love a gift from someone like a crisp white shirt or even a pair of leather gloves, but the fact remains that I am not in need of either. In fact I have several white shirts and several pairs of gloves: black ones, tan gloves, brown ones, sports gloves and even a pair that are black with red piping accents. I like the shimmer of Chirstmas and this year I have not given up dccorating my home and putting up some whites lights in the kid's room, their stockings, snow globe and tiny tree in their room. I don't want to take away the shimmer of Chirstmas because for me it is a part of the experience for the children and for the little boy inside of me. As I prepare for the Christmas Eve pot luck in my home I continue to add a little ornament here and some lights there. I am going to put up a white all branch tree with white lights and pretty aqua and silver ornaments. But there will be more to it than that. I will also prepare the pretty ivory hearts that each of us will use to participate in the "heart exercise" where each person gets a name randomly and writes something about that person on their heart. Then everyone who would like to do so will read it to the person. It is as one would imagine an emotional activity and there are sometimes some tears of joy and emotion. Then there will be time for the family memebers who play instruments to play a song and the singers to sing for all of us. It is the way we gift each other by sharing our talents and by gifting each other with our beautiful talents. This year is a year to celebrate family love and family values. We will pray before we eat our meal and we will dance to some traditional Latino music. And as usual there will likely be one or two guests who don't have anywhere to go for Christmas who will be invited to join us. One person in particular who is a friend of my brothers and his wife has joined us each year.
This holiday seasson I just want to as the say "shout out" to all of you out there who feel like you have to spend money and be stressed for the holidays. You don't have to spend the money and you can enjoy the holidays and all that it offers. Getting together with friends or family is gift enough for all of us and gift enough for God to be pleased and for us to be pleased. We don't need the material gifts and we don't even need the shimmery lights because there are plenty of them downtown where you could take your family on a field trip to see. What is important about Chirstmas is the love of family and friends and the birth of Christ. This holiday is really about finding the things that are meaningful and not allowing ourselves to get stuck in the material aspects of the holiday and the commercials that are simply trying to sell us happiness in the form of a gift. We all know that the joy we see in the commercials is staged and that genuine joy of Christmas is inside of you. You are the real Santa.
Every year we have tried as a family to develope and different approach to the holidays and thank goodness this year we have accomplished an agreement. I myself am going to take some of my spending and make a contribution to a nearby homeless day shelter called WaySide. There the clients come in, pray, eat, wash chothes and are even given a chance to take a shower. I had volunteered there for a week and the thing that I most recall is how happy each person was and how light hearted each person treated the other. There was commaradary seldom seen betwen people who do have a place to live and are in a community that is prosperous. My intention is to take the money I spent last year on one person in our grab bag and buy some supplies for the homeless like plastic forks and knives or coffee or soap. It will feel as though I am doing something for people who have much less than me and who are struggling to make it from one day to the next. All be it people who have the ability to continue to smile and take things in stride.
I love Christmas and frankly I would likely love a gift from someone like a crisp white shirt or even a pair of leather gloves, but the fact remains that I am not in need of either. In fact I have several white shirts and several pairs of gloves: black ones, tan gloves, brown ones, sports gloves and even a pair that are black with red piping accents. I like the shimmer of Chirstmas and this year I have not given up dccorating my home and putting up some whites lights in the kid's room, their stockings, snow globe and tiny tree in their room. I don't want to take away the shimmer of Chirstmas because for me it is a part of the experience for the children and for the little boy inside of me. As I prepare for the Christmas Eve pot luck in my home I continue to add a little ornament here and some lights there. I am going to put up a white all branch tree with white lights and pretty aqua and silver ornaments. But there will be more to it than that. I will also prepare the pretty ivory hearts that each of us will use to participate in the "heart exercise" where each person gets a name randomly and writes something about that person on their heart. Then everyone who would like to do so will read it to the person. It is as one would imagine an emotional activity and there are sometimes some tears of joy and emotion. Then there will be time for the family memebers who play instruments to play a song and the singers to sing for all of us. It is the way we gift each other by sharing our talents and by gifting each other with our beautiful talents. This year is a year to celebrate family love and family values. We will pray before we eat our meal and we will dance to some traditional Latino music. And as usual there will likely be one or two guests who don't have anywhere to go for Christmas who will be invited to join us. One person in particular who is a friend of my brothers and his wife has joined us each year.
This holiday seasson I just want to as the say "shout out" to all of you out there who feel like you have to spend money and be stressed for the holidays. You don't have to spend the money and you can enjoy the holidays and all that it offers. Getting together with friends or family is gift enough for all of us and gift enough for God to be pleased and for us to be pleased. We don't need the material gifts and we don't even need the shimmery lights because there are plenty of them downtown where you could take your family on a field trip to see. What is important about Chirstmas is the love of family and friends and the birth of Christ. This holiday is really about finding the things that are meaningful and not allowing ourselves to get stuck in the material aspects of the holiday and the commercials that are simply trying to sell us happiness in the form of a gift. We all know that the joy we see in the commercials is staged and that genuine joy of Christmas is inside of you. You are the real Santa.
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