A thought for Christmas.....

Well the countdown to Christmas is on....the house is quiet....hubby and the boys and grandpa have all gone shopping.....yes shopping. The boys are wanting to get a little something for me... they kept asking me what I wanted.....I can honestly say....I don't need or want anything...truly....I said that to my hubby as well....I just want us to be happy and healthy and together...and it appears that I will get my wish for Christmas, that is the best gift of all.

Have you ever read the story The Christmas Box written by Richard Paul Evans? It was given to me as a gift many years ago by my girls grandmother. She briefly explained the concept of the story to me and I thought how lovely, I will have to read that one day. Well the years have passed and the other day when I was preparing the boys room for their arrival I was looking at my bookshelf and there it was. It's has a charming cover and I thought it would make a nice table book. But something said to me read it.....read the book. So I got myself a cup of tea and laid on the couch and started to read it. The author of the book wrote the story out of love for his two daughters and it was his gift to them. The story was then given to others as gifts and finally someone suggested he publish it, which he did.

It is a story about a man and his young family who move from California back to his home state of Utah where he was going to start a new business. The wife while reading in the paper finds an ad for a small family to move into a mansion and to help with general chores and meals for an aging woman. The family move in and the story goes on about life in the mansion and living with the woman and the lessons he learnt. It was a touching story, one fit to be read at Christmas. It definitely gave me food for thought and reminded me about what is important, not only at Christmas but all year through.

It is hard not to get all wrapped up in the preparation of Christmas and easy to forget about why we do what it is we do for Christmas. I guess at some point in time after all the years of preparing for Christmas that maybe one Christmas we will truly get it.....I mean why we go to all the effort, why it is so important that we get just that right little something for Suzy or Johnny, why we spend so much time in the kitchen cooking the feast to end all feasts......or decorate that tree....that perfect tree.....maybe just maybe, that one year will come when we realize that it really isn't just about Christmas, but a time for us to renew and remember our feelings of humanity. We go to all this effort because we love.....because we care.....because we want those around us to know how much we care.....and because we feel so blessed and fortunate that we want to share this with others. Even if it is only your neighbour....just to share that warm caring feeling with someone other than your immediate family....to be able to do something for someone else....not because we have to.....but because we want to....and for some reason we have decided as a society that the best time of year to do this is Christmas......Christmas reminds us that there are more important things than ourselves...... when will we learn the lesson to carry these feeling through to the whole year....will it be this year? Or will it take another Christmas for us to figure it all out?

I wish you all a very blessed and Happy Christmas!