Guest: Alicia

The most wonderful time of the year.

Christmas is such a special time! I love everything about it!! I get so excited thinking about what I can get my precious 6 children. I want just the perfect gift.

As I read Mommy blogs, I see such a contrast of thoughts. Some feel that children need spoiled like crazy at Christmas time. They buy for their kids all year, so at Christmas it has to be even more extravagant! They spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on their children.

Other mommies feel that Christmas has become extremely commercialized. They worry that their children will miss the true reason of the season and that is more blessed to give than to receive and so they set up plans to serve everyone else at Christmas and have their children out giving like crazy and then will barely buy their kids anything.

I see the point of both extremes, but I don’t like either one. I like balance. Christmas is the season of not thinking about ourselves and thinking of others, and because of that, my kids are “other” that I enjoy thinking about. I feel that I am a giving person and have been my whole life, but if my parents had not gotten me presents I would have been crushed!

Since I became paralyzed in 2009, my children show me daily that they are givers. They help me anytime I need them. Guess who decorated the tree and put up everything I could not reach? My kids. They love to surprise me and do the things they know make me happy. They are normal kids that argue and squabble and they have their own times of selfishness just like we all do, but they are always willing to help me out. I love bottling up my gratitude for that all year long and releasing it on them at Christmas. It is my gift to them.

This year, my kids have helped me plan church parties for other young people. They have went with me and sung at the nursing home and to our community and sung for the elderly. They were involved in our church Christmas programs. And, they will get gifts at Christmas. We don’t spend hundreds of dollars, but we do spend more on them at Christmas than any other time of the year.

I pray that this Christmas is a wonderful season for you and your family! I hope that in this crazy world, you find balance and peace and enjoy every day with those you love.

Merry Christmas!