Christmas Morning is finally here!!!! All the expectation and preparation has come to an end. The gifts all wrapped, the cookies all baked, And we light the center white candle.
Everyone has their own Christmas Morning Traditions. This is how we start our Christmas Morning. Unfortunately it starts with a rule...the kids aren't allowed out of their rooms until we tell them it is time. So that Daddy and I can get up and make a fabulous breakfast and set the table and have a cup of coffee before the craziness begins. (It's funny but that rule has not once been broken. Maybe they fear loss of presents? No stipulation has ever been made but stay in their rooms they do, although we hear the impatience of childhood down the hall.)
Once allowed out of their rooms we have a feast of a breakfast which always includes some sort of eggs, bacon, Monkey Bread, and fruit salad along with a cookie tray of whatever is left. During breakfast we read the Christmas Story out of Luke 2 and, generally read some devotional type reflection. Lighting the candles is exciting because the kids get to recite what each represents and then we light the center candle. I use a three-wick candle to represent the Trinity and we talk about how God sent His Son and then later the Holy Spirit came for all believers. This year we finished out with Christ in Christmas: A Family Advent Celebration.
After a leisurely breakfast we move to the living room. The leisure part of breakfast was the hardest to enforce when the kids were young. But they both realized that 1. Mom and Dad aren't giving in, 2. The gifts aren't going anywhere, and 3. Time with family is a better gift.
First on our agenda this year was sponsoring a child through Compassion International. As a family we decided to forgo some of our gifts so that we could use that money to sponsor a child. We picked Christon from the Philippines. He had been waiting for a sponsor for over a year. His birthday is in March. The kids were excited that they get to send him cards in a bit!!!!
Then we open our gifts one at a time. We don't tear into them but open each one and enjoy the time and effort it took to pick it out. The kids open toys if they were given any and play. Then we remember there are more and open another one. It is such a fun time to take our time. My kids amaze me each and every year. Even this year with fewer and smaller gifts they are always amazing grateful. I think because the gifts are a byproduct of Christmas not the real thing and we have always made an effort to enforce that truth.
We give gifts because God gave the best gift to us - His Son. The real gifts of Christmas for my family are the special time we get to spend together, the slowly built traditions of years past that help us focus on God and on family. The wrapped stuff under the tree is like the sprinkles on a sugar cookie.
Christmas Night we pull out The Advent Book and read it all the way through. We talk about our day before we fall into bed, happy and exhausted!
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