This Christmas

This year, we will be celebrating Christmas with a tiny little human who will forever change our lives. I.am.so.very.excited!  Living over 4000 km from family, Christmas can feel like a much too quiet, sometimes lonely occasion. We have been blessed with friends so dear, we feel like they are family...but this is their home, and they have relatives and events and meals to attend to, and it's a reminder that in the end, it's just my sweet man and I.

Well this year feels a bit different. We will now be three, instead of two. We will now be Mom and Dad, totally preoccupied and in love with our new baby, probably exhausted. Everything will be just a little bit more magical. Baby's first Christmas Eve, church service, stocking, tree ornament, Christmas morning. Of course our little one will have no idea what is going on, but Devin and I will always remember the first Christmas we could look at our miracle and be so full of gratitude.

Since I've been thinking about Christmas a little more than usual, I've also been thinking about how I would like our family to "do" Christmas.  I want the focus to be on Jesus, people, memories and love; and very little focus on decorations, presents and "stuff".  Lately my heart has been leaning towards simplicity and living with less, and my hope for Christmas is no different. We decided our baby will not be needing much for gifts this year, or any year really. We'd like to keep the presents minimal, and the focus on the important stuff.  I saw a neat little poem on Pinterest awhile back that said a good rule of thumb for giving gifts to your children is "something they want, something they need, something they wear, and something they read".  This year we got baby Roddick many books, a baby Bible, a stocking with their name on it, and a personalized Christmas ornament. We also will keep our gifts to each other minimal this year, and hopefully for good. I love the feeling of changing the focus and making it simple.

As our child (and hopefully others to come) grows, I imagine reading the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible together, watching Christmas movies, lighting the Advent candles, baking together, visiting neighbours and friends, decorating the tree, bringing baked goods to neighbours, shoveling out driveways for elderly people...I could keep going. I'm sure it won't always be as sentimental and warm and perfect as I'm imagining, but as long as our family remembers to put Jesus first, to keep it simple, to think of others and show them love, it will be excellent.