Merry Christmas!

Posted by Lorren on December 24, 2009

Christmas ~ by AriesAspirations

I hope that everyone is having a good Christmas. So far, it’s been a pretty good Christmas season. They’re swamping me at work at my writing job, so the bills are getting paid; my friend has started working. Even most of my family gathered for Christmas Eve together, as they always have. I couldn’t go this year, but I was there via phone, which was all I could do (mainly because they were giving me almost no work in September and October).

I can’t believe that the year (decade) is almost over. This year has certainly been a year of political changes, and the decade has been a year of changes both for the world and for my life. But that is in another week.

Meanwhile, I read my kids “The Night Before Christmas”, and my daughter “Christmas Every Day”. We got to open one present each (my daughter was excited to open a Webkinz; little does she know that she’s going to get three more plushes and another pet code before tomorrow is up).

I think that one of the most exciting things this year was seeing my friends get a Christmas after all. They had lost all of their income, and had no money. I knew that I was going to buy their kids each a present so that they’d have something under the tree. She told me today that the people at her new job pitched in and took all of the kid’s toys out of layaway, and bought them more presents. I was so excited to hear that. I told her that she never knew if a Christmas miracle would occur, knowing that I was bringing gifts, and she got a bigger miracle than even I would have expected! I was so excited for her… but isn’t that a little of what Christmas is all about? Showing kindness to people who can’t do anything in return? Giving to Toys For Tots, or a family without toys, or food to people who have little. While I may enjoy the gifts that I get tomorrow, I think that giving to my friend, and seeing the miracle that her co-workers pulled off, will be the highlight of this Christmas.

BTW – You can’t outgive God. The day after we decided to give gifts to our friends, we received a card in the mail with more cash than we were planning on spending on them. While I don’t always receive a financial return immediately after I choose to help someone else out, God has always taken care of us, even when times have been tough. We went through a period of almost a year when my dh’s employment was sporadic to nonexistent, and amazingly, all our bills were paid.