No, we did not bake Grandma Camp's ginger cookies with pink frosting. Not once did we pull out the Christmas Eve book... let alone the other fun Christmas books. I really regret not reading any of those to the kids, but I just don't know when I could have squished that in between visits with family (Tristan and Rob came out, which was Awesome with a capital A,) church activities, school programs, work parties, and extended family gatherings. We didn't talk about the nativity story in our immediate family until Christmas night to wrap up the festivities which in hindsight was a fine way to bring back the focus to Christ after all was said and done.
To focus on things we did well, I'd have to start by saying that the kids are really enjoying this new tradition we started a year or two back of doing 25 Days of Service. Starting December 1st, we think up 25 acts of service and write each thing on a strip of paper. Then as the days go by, we create a paper chain that gets longer instead of shorter with each act of service we perform. The end result is a visible display of selfless acts with the final link--the service given on Christmas Day--always being "Give a gift to Christ." This year and last year we decided that our gift to Christ would be a day of peace and no contention. We were not perfect at keeping the peace that day but there was a definite effort put forth by all and a noticeable difference. We also told the kids this year that we would like to keep gifts to a minimum so others in need could have more. The past three years, we have done a Secret Santa for a few different families and the kids have loved it so it wasn't hard for them to agree to a downsized Christmas. (Man, I have AWESOME kids!!) We learned of an elderly couple in our ward who needed assistance so we went on Christmas Eve to deliver a few gifts to the rest home and ended up visiting with a few other patients. We sang a few songs for them and then took off for the Delgadillo family Christmas Eve party. Christmas morning was fun. The kids got a couple gifts from Santa then we went to my parents' house for our traditional waffle breakfast. Everyone opened more gifts (!) and we spent the rest of the day together there. When we got home we were met with more gifts to open from the Chavez side of the family (!!) and Juan and I realized that it really is an overload of gifts for everyone.
Giving was fun, receiving was nice, but the most important thing was that our children needed to feel the impact of Christ in their lives. I hope that our mini devotional that night and month of service was enough to teach them and help them feel that.
