Our Big Little Life: Gift List (By Laura)

We have never really done the Christmas "gift list" thing around here. I've often thought it was a super great idea for the receiver, but a super impersonal idea for the giver. I know many people do it, and like it that way, but I just feel that it kind of takes away the joy of really thinking about giving something that is from the heart.

(That said, sometimes it's nice to just have an idea of what the person would like!!)

This year, we are doing a deliberately simple Christmas with the girls. It WON'T be simple in terms of family time, enjoying the festivities and the season, making all sorts of Christmassy decorations and treats, or planning wintery activities. It WILL be simple in the area of gifts.

This is always a struggle for us. We have tried again and again to "simplify" gift giving, to focus on the beauty of the season and the simple story of a young teenage girl giving birth in a stable in a foreign city, having travelled days sitting on a donkey, likely having early labour pains (LET'S JUST IMAGINE THAT FOR A MOMENT - EUGH), with her new husband who she hasn't even slept with yet. Yikes - that makes for a rather dramatic scene, doesn't it?

I am way off track already.

So, we have tried to hold back on the overload of gifts. We would like the season to be about more than a greedy present bash. The thing is, it is so fun to spoil them. So many years we said, "let's just get them a small amount of gifts each" and come December we end up picking up this and that, allowing ourselves the luxury of spending more and more as we get them "just one more thing". They end up with a mound, somewhat defeating the purpose of our simplification idea. Sigh.

A little while back we heard of a family who does a neat thing, and we're going to do it this year. It's a simple idea. Gold. Frankincense. Myrrh. The three gifts given by the magi to that little boy, maybe two or three years old by then, who was growing and learning about the world he was born into, his mother now in her mid- or late teens, and his father a humble carpenter. Those strange visitors came from a foreign land in the East, and bowed down to him as if he was a king, giving him these three gifts.

Gold was the gift of a true king - riches and splendor. Frankincense was a sweet incense that symbolized prayer rising to the heavens as smoke. Myrrh was used in death, to prepare a body for burial.

The three gifts we will be giving correspond with these three gifts given centuries ago. GOLD will be a gift that will be loved, for no other reason than she will enjoy it - perhaps something she has been hoping for. FRANKINCENSE will be a spiritual gift - something that will help her develop and grow in understanding of herself and the world around her. MYRRH will be a gift that is useful and practical. (No, not anything to do with death - haha!!)

And that is it! We hope to establish this as the new "norm" in our family, to grow good things like thankfulness, meaningfulness, appreciation, and to vear away from the (so easily adopted) attitude of "I want more".

Thankfulness. This is a theme I've been thinking a lot about. I'm reading a really good book right now about thankfulness, its power and the way it leads us to new and amazing places, and have begun to list things, big and small, that I'm thankful for - gifts that I receive during my days that strike me as simply wonderful.

And so, with no further ado, here is my very own gift list for today. The gifts I've received as I've trudged through the first half of it and look forward to the remaining hours. Enjoy!