The Christmas with "No" Presents

People have been asking me how the Christmas of no presents went.

It was GREAT!

But before I go any further I need to clarify a few things. There were presents. There just were not any presents from Brian and I, my parents, or my siblings and their families. And even that is misleading. The "present" that we all gave each other in my family was a ski vacation in Colorado. So there was a present...a very, very good present....just not a physical item to unwrap.

I also need to point out that while Brian and I did not get the kids, or each other, anything..."Santa" did. He got Kinley a kitchen (at a garage sale for $20).....

and he got each of the boys a Razor scooter.

But no, we did not unwrap any gifts on Christmas morning. As a matter of fact we didn't even have any presents sitting under the tree because I didn't wrap the few presents we bought for Brian's family until Christmas morning. And to tell you the truth I don't think any of us noticed.

Instead of unwrapping mountains of gifts and sifting through trash and unpackaging and assembling dozens of toys we just played. I made a big breakfast, the boys rode their scooters and Kinley "cooked" in her kitchen. It was so nice!

Now just so you don't think my kids were totally deprived...and so you'll realize why they don't need any presents from us....we did go ahead and take our annual individual pictures with the gifts.

Here is Kinley with everything she got. (And that innocent little pink circle on top of the couch is a 4 foot tall circular princess tent. Not to mention the fact that we forgot to put out the other baby doll and her diaper bag and stoller.)

And here is Cainan with his haul.

And last but not least here is Ryker with his Christmas bounty.

Keep in mind that this is only about half of what they would have gotten on a "normal" Christmas year. Usually they have to sit on the big couches instead of the love seats to fit all of their gifts in the picture.

And here is the pile of toys I made them remove from their toy room and give (or throw) away before the new toys could go in. 25 toys in all. I gave them a break and counted each set as one instead of counting each individual item. Too bad. I could have doubled the amount of give away toys if I had done that. Maybe next year.

Up until Christmas morning I still questioned if I was doing the right thing. I knew deep down I was but I still felt a little guilty about it. I was afraid the kids would be sad and bored after they came down and found their ONE present sitting on the hearth with the remains of the cookies and celery (for the reindeer, ya know). But they were totally unphased by the whole thing and Brian and I were completely relieved to have to do almost no shopping and best of all....no building of new shelves to house all of the new toys.

The final reward for our decision and the justification for it all came on January 2nd. We were riding up a lift, looking out across the mountains as the snow fell around us and Ryker said,

"This is better than ANY present!"

AMEN!

We are already brainstorming ways we can do the same thing next year. I wouldn't change a thing....except.... I wouldn't use every egg in the house for the big Christmas breakfast...even the ones I needed for the cheesecake I had yet to make...thereby sending Brian on a mad dash throughout Bond county looking for eggs on Christmas morning again...but other than that I would totally do it ALL again!

Advent Conspiracy

This year I am thankful that we are simplifying our Christmas and focusing on what really matters.

You can too.


See how here.......




Happy Thanksgiving!!

To see more expressions of gratitude head over to Internet Cafe Devotions and follow the links.

This is What I'm Talking About

Several of you have asked me how teaching Sunday School is going.

Well....I'm in my 6th week now teaching on materialism and stewardship and it's going.....OK.

I enjoy it and preparing the lessons has really helped me to examine my beliefs and firm up my position on certain topics. But I had no idea people would be so resistant to the idea of using God's money for His purposes instead of for their own.

I related how I hate my master bedroom because it is incredibly ugly and not completely finished and mismatched and stained, etc, etc, etc, but that I can't justify remodeling it when that money could be used by God to do so much for His kingdom. Having a nice bedroom would only benefit me and my husband, for a while until it went out of style, but God could use that money to change someone's life for ETERNITY. Who would choose the bedroom?

Well, apparently all kinds of people. I got arguments like, "But you'll rest better and feel more relaxed if you have a nice bedroom" and "As long as you aren't going in to debt to do it and you aren't taking food away from your kids to do it I don't see anything wrong with it". I even had one lady say, "Look, I've got a bunch of left over paint from my family room in my garage. You can have that and at least paint it a nice color." Some people seemed down right upset that I was "suffering" with an ugly bedroom and said flat out that I should paint it.

Apparently all of the discussion about the difference between wants and needs went in one ear and out the other. A child in Haiti needs vaccinations. I want a pretty bedroom. Which do you think God cares about more?

When I got to the lessons about Earth Stewardship and the way our greed for material possessions adversely effects the world God gave us to sustain us it got even uglier. I was pretty discouraged after last week. I wasn't getting the point (the point being that we need to be appreciative of the money and resources God has given us and use them, but not overuse them, being sure to provide as much as possible for those less fortunate instead of just stuffing ourselves) across and frankly I felt a little bit attacked. I have one more lesson to sum it all up and show the class how seeing money, oil, electricity, wood, etc as gifts from God not "certain unalienable rights" meant to be consumed as fast as possible, makes us more grateful and giving people.

And then this morning I came across a link to a real life story that completely sums up what I have been talking about all along. Read this story of how one family helped the poor at great personal sacrifice and became rich in the process. (Note: Pay attention to the amount given by each family in the church.)

I couldn't have said it any better.

America Recycles Day

As promised I have a very special post for today.

My own recycling mentor, Linda, is guest posting on my blog.

She has recently launched her own blog, How to Be Green in Greenville, and wrote this great post on the positive impact recylcing can have not only on our planet, but on your own life.

So I hope you enjoy her post and go check out her blog for more great recylcing and green living tips and encouragement.

Lately I have been reading some very negative view points about recycling and how it really doesn't save much of anything. Some nay sayers comment on how much contamination goes into recycling facilities and ends up costing more time and effort than its worth. For example, a contriband plastic bag or shredded paper gets caught in the machine, and it causes the facility hours of work to free up the trapped waste, costing the facility more money than they will ever receive.

Other negative views state that the companies that sell us products packaged in all these containers that need to be recycled, are footing the responsibility to us, the consumers, to clean up their mess. They say, "don't recycle," then maybe these companies will take more responsibility for their messes.

I say this. A lot of people can spend a lot of time griping and arguing about many details pertaining to recycling. One could spin endlessly trying to decided, "should I, or shouldn't I," and never get a black and white answer. Like everything, the system is not perfect. There is contamination in recycling facilities, and people do waste a lot of time and money dealing with the "glitches".

I don't think, however, that these negative friends are taking into consideration the ripple effect that recycling can have on a person's life. By choosing to take action, and to "just start," despite all things that point to why you shouldn't, you will make a difference - for the planet, for yourself, and for others.

Personally, I can attest to this. Our recycling has had profound effects on our lives. We became more mindful of the waste in our lives, and of our own indifference. We live, as Americans, a very shallow, consumeristic lifestyle that says, "it's ok if it's not just right, or too old, or broken, or just outdated - throw it out. You can always get something else". Just seeing the mountain of "trash" that would have been going into our trash cans, was enough to give us pause. "Where is all of this cardboard coming from?" We had no idea that we threw out so much cardboard. "Are we really buying all this stuff?" Lots of children's things are packaged to death, with lots of excess cardboard.

Another example of this was with the cans. "Why are there so many cans? When did we stop eating real food? What does "fresh" taste like? What does our money support if we are not buying locally? Are our eating habits supporting unethical practices abroad?"

Well, I could talk a lot here about this road, but I will keep it short as not to sound too preachy. That's not my intent. Here is a little of our road. Recycling led to less spending... led to realization of consumeristic lifestyle... led to putting God back into first place in our lives... led to releasing our money to God... led to giving like never before... led to relief of poverty over seas and locally ...led to greater desire to give... led to realizing how our actions impact the poor globally... led to wanting to change more...led to composting...led to gardening... led to desire to can our own food... led to greater thankful perspective on the bounty that the earth provides us all... I could go on.

The point, recycling is so much bigger than the actual act. It's that, plus a lot more. Then, when you add the other two Rs of Reduce and Reuse, the impact is even greater. December will be the end of our year of buying nothing new. Another result of the road afore mentioned. Our spending is unrecognizable. We reuse more, and we reduce our trash just by buying less- less packaging.

Yes there are problems with recycling. Yes you could argue that it's not worth it when you throw in all the glitches. But when you look at the global picture of the change that occurs within yourself and your actions, and the impact that you have on friends, family, and biggest of all, your children, there is no question that it is effective, transformative, and in fact, DOES make a difference.

And if you don't buy any of that, buy this---It's just the right thing to do. We don't trash our homes, why would we trash God's earth, the very thing that gives us life and sustains us?

Please join with people all over our great country and make November 15th, America Recycles Day, the day that you begin your journey on your own road. See for yourself what a difference you can make!

Teaching Compassion

Ahhhh, Christmas approaches.

The season of peace, joy and love "I want", "I want", "I want"......

This year we are not playing that game. We are turning our focus away from ourselves and on to God and his work, his plan for us. In my continuing effort to emphasize giving more and wanting less to my kids we are doing a few different things this holiday season.

#1: We aren't exchanging Christmas gifts with my family or each other. We decided just to spend time together skiing as a family. The kids were a little disappointed at first, but the closer it gets to the actual trip the more excited they get. They know that they will still get presents from the other side of the family, so that probably softens the blow a little bit.

Most Christmas gifts are fun but they are also useless. Someone spent a lot of time and money buying us something that, while we will enjoy and appreciate it, we don't really need it. We have more toys and clothes than we could ever use, and aside from food, that's all we need. So Christmas gifts just become another symbol of our selfish desires for unnecessary junk in our lives. We are simplifying here and that is the first step.

#2: We are filling an Operation Christmas Child shoebox. We are having fun finding things from around the house (new, not used) to put in the shoebox, like toothpaste, soap, a shirt, some socks, etc. I also found an unopened can of playdoh and several brand new pencils laying around that we put in the box as well. We've taken one small shopping trip where we spent $3.20 on some small toys for the box as well. We plan to include a note and a picture of our family in the box, too. We're also including a self-addressed stamped envelope so that our new friend can write to us if he wants to. (As an added bonus, Samaritan's Purse is also providing a barcode that you can put on the top of each box so that you will receive notification of the final destination country of your particular box. Isn't that cool?)

If you've never participated in Operation Christmas Child you should. It is a great way to help children around the world through an organization you can trust. It is also a super way to teach your own kids about poverty and our responsibility as the wealthy members of the planet to help those less fortunate. I use this time as a way to emphasize giving instead of receiving. The kids are going to have to give away 2 of their stuffed animals (barely used) to put in the box as well....they just don't know it yet.

#3: We are reading the stories from the Compassion Bloggers that just returned from the Dominican Republic. Compassion International sent a group of bloggers to the Dominican to observe the organization there and interact with the children in the program. These people then write about their trip and let the blogosphere know about all the good that the organization does. There are dozens of heartwarming stories and hundreds of pictures from all of the bloggers, but the one we are reading was written by a child. Nick Challis went on the trip and wrote his own blog about his experience. It is clearly a child's voice coming through the screen and my boys can relate to his feelings and experiences. I hope that this will be yet another exposure to the poor and needy in our world that we need to pray for and help in any way possible. I hope that it makes my children see how incredibly blessed they are to have all that they do, and grow in them a spirit of compassion and giving.

If you'd like to read any of the accounts of the trip here are the sites to check. (In most cases these link just take you to one post in a series so look around for more posts on each site.)

Melanie from Big Mama
Mary from Owlhaven
Marlboro Man from Pioneer Woman (yes, THAT Marlboro Man)
Jennifer from 5 Minutes for Mom
Brian from A Simple Journey
Shaun from Shaun Groves Shlog (yes, THE Shaun Groves)
Nick from Challies Jr. (our child correspondent)

#4: I am signing us up for a time to ring the bell for the Salvation Army. Standing in the freezing cold collecting 59 cents in the course of an hour in front of our small town grocery store will hopefully show the kids how hard it is to support benevolent organizations and how important it is to give to charitable works so that they can reach out to the people that need it when we can't.

I hope that all of my efforts pay off and my kids ask for less realizing how much they already have. My goal is to make them content with what they have....or less than what they have. When they see that lived out in us and in other people around the community and around the world I think they'll get the message.