How blessed we truly are.

As many of you already know, we are not buying gifts this Christmas. I was pretty bummed about this, until we went to Walmart tonight and I noticed just how few toys there are for babies under one year old. The cool ones were pretty expensive and the others were just blah. I bought some yogurt and asked if Alex wanted to get yogurt in his stocking and he started laughing! He is so easily amused. I guess that just proves that the Christmas I had imagined was more about me than Alex, Patrick or Jesus. Maybe God is working on me with this.

I love giving things to people and was limited in my gifting, so I gave one big gift. With some of my Christmas money from my father-in-law, I decided to buy a goat. Yes, I said goat. World Concern is an organization that provides sustainable gifts to people in 3rd world countries. They teach the recievers how to feed, milk, and care for the animals they are given. I could have bought a pen and vaccines for the goat, but that was over my budget. I was so excited to get this goat!! Everyone knows just how practical I am. What is a more practical gift than a goat for a starving family? That really made me second guess the extra goodies we typically buy each other with little thought and a lot of money that will eventually break, get lost, or even regifted.

How blessed we are to have what we do! Yeah, maybe the bills wont all get paid this month, or there might not be as much money in the "MISC" fund, but when all is said and done, God has already provided everything we need. The rest is just frivolity. It is easy to get swept into the American trap of having to have things-lots of things-just so we can appear up-to-par with the crowd. As I sit in my living room typing on my laptop computer, I am realizing just how much of this stuff is for show and to help me be lazy. What would my life be like if I got rid of all this stuff and lived with just the necessities God has already provided? Many would say it would be miserable. But do those things really bring us the happiness, or is it the peace and security we think they provide?

This Christmas, I want to focus on God. The real reason all this got started. I will remember the many blessings (even the ones that brought tears of sadness at the time)that He has gifted me with. I want to start redirecting my thought patterns to focus on God and His will for me and my life. He didn't promise an easy life, but He did promise one with Him. That is enough for me.

--The pictures below are a few weeks old, but still worth posting. Gianna loves her cousin and was willing to pose for the kiss. She is so sweet.