It’s Not About the “Stuff”

When our kids were little, we felt like Christmas was about the “stuff”. That’s not how we intended, but just the way things became. We know and celebrate the real Reason for the season, but when we had preschoolers in the house, they loved to make their wish lists and they were chock full of things they really didn’t need or sometimes even want.  SO, we decided to institute the “Three Gifts Plan”….just like the Wise Men who brought gifts to Baby Jesus, we would give 3 gifts to each of our children. That worked great and really helped to reinforce the the true meaning of Christmas…..the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Now that we have a true, 100% teenager and a true, 100% “tweenager” in the house, we just want to spend time together this Christmas. So, this Christmas we decided that we would make sure to spend time making irreplaceable memories. So, here’s what we did:

Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas has a wonderful dinner theatre where the Nativity comes to life.

 

 

After our delicious dinner, we enjoyed the millions of lights, hot chocolate, & s’mores at the Festival of Lights! 

 

 

This tradition will definitely continue!

 

 

The Kids Ministry at our church wanted to bring the Nativity to life and our family was able to participate. A Night in Bethlehem.

 

 

My son was a shepherd (he’s the one on the left)

 

 

 

 

 

And our daughter was a Spice Girl!! (ha!)

 

 

Then, to finish out our very special & memorable Christmas, we were ALL IN for the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio to cheer on our Baylor Bears to victory!! (my alma mater….sic ‘em!!)

I’ll share more about our time in San Antonio later.

I hope that you will look at this New Year 2012 as a golden opportunity to pour time and effort into the lives of your children and into the things that really matter to you.

I’m excited to see what 2012 holds!