Deciding to be different

As I get older, I realize that I used to like Christmas much more for material reasons than for spiritual ones. In talking to one of my cousins, I am hopeful that some individuals in our family may move toward a less gift driven holiday and more towards a "make something meaningful" kind of holiday. For instance, because I wanted to give something to everyone in my family, I made gifts as early as January for all of the women. Scott has a project up his sleeve for all of the men as well. Now, this doesn't help much in the name drawing thing because we'll still be drawing names for gifts at least on one side of the family, but you know, that's okay. We are still a part of family tradition and we've satisfied our own desire to make something meaningful as well.

Don't get me wrong . . . I'm not implying that store bought gifts are not meaningful. My sister buys some of the greatest, meaningful gifts you'll ever find and that's her thing. She's a great shopper. She finds bargains and deals and if she can't find one, she'll sweet talk the store into giving her a deal! :)

Anyhow, Scott and I are at that point that every budding family reaches where you want to continue the traditions you had growing up while creating some of your own. For years, we just sort of squeezed in opening presents at our house around everyone else's events. To be honest, most years we really haven't bought each other much in the way of gifts. However, this year we are going to make a conscious effort to set aside time and record everything. I think we'll do ours Christmas morning with a big pancake breakfast (we have at least put that tradition into practice over the years). Our Christmas will never be the gifts-piled-to-the-ceiling kind of Christmas. We'll have plenty so that the day is fun for the kiddo but let's face it, she's going to get plenty of gifts from grandparents so she will never miss out.

Scott and I have decided to incorporate another element into our tradition as well. We're going to make a donation, in Emily's name (and in the name of any other children when they come along) to a charity.

I think that this year, we may make a donation to: http://www.bloodwatermission.com/