Christmas is Giving

We have never included Santa in our Christmas celebrations as a family but have taught the boys the real meaning of Christmas...the birth of our Jesus, our Savior, who was born to die for our sins so we can have eternal life. Every year before we open presents we discuss why we have Christmas and make sure they understand that it is better to give than to receive.

Well, this year, emotions (of the boys) were at an all time low at gift-opening time so we delayed it until they were ready. On our third try we started by reading the account in Luke 2. Conner read the first half and Karch finished it. We prayed and thanked God for the greatest gift of all. We will make it a tradition from now on to read Luke 2 and pray before we open gifts.

Both boys were very thoughtful in the gifts they gave each other and to Karl & I. Conner gave up his green light saber so Karch could have one. Karch gave Conner some of his stretchy bugs, candy and $2. I had to remind myself that they are good boys who deep down inside care very much for each other. Some days it doesn't show, but I know it's there.

Conner loved to display his gifts for the camera. His big gift this year was a Nintendo DS.

Karch has wanted a dirt bike since Conner got one last Christmas. Karl found a used one and a friend of his stored it in his garage. After we opened our gifts, we drove down to "spread some Christmas cheer" to Karl's friend. He took us out to his garage to show us his "latest project". Karch hopped on to see if it fit him and we shouted, "Merry Christmas!" to him.