Captured Moments: A Christmas to Remember

Sunday, December 2, 2012

A Christmas to Remember

I have struggled this Christmas - wanting to "give it all" to Cooper. I went through what we have for him for Christmas and felt kind of weird that it isn't a lot. It really is just a few things. There is a battle in my mind of wanting to be wise with our money, wanting to instill purpose of Christmas other than gifts, and wanting to get Cooper a lot and give him a gift-filled Christmas because it's so fun to watch his eyes light up with excitement with that stuff.

I was talking about this with my accountability partner the other day and she reminded me that it's not the presents he will remember but the traditions and memories we make. After she said that I reflected back on my childhood. I only remember a few Christmas gifts (especially from when I was younger). But what I do remember are the traditions my family had. The events, the parades, the lights at the park, the home made crafts. I remember and treasure those memories more than anything else from childhood Christmases.

It doesn't really matter how many gifts Cooper gets this Christmas. It doesn't matter how much (or how little) we spend on him. What matters is teaching him of God's love to us in Jesus. What matters is giving him experiences of traditions that he will remember and carry with him into adulthood. And teaching him to give to others in ways he (and we) are able to.

So this year I am starting a tradition of an advent calendar. It's one filled with activities for us to do each day in December leading up to Christmas. Day 1 was Christmas on an Schrock's Amish Farm. They had different activities set up at the farm. He got to ride the train (the highlight for him) and he got to meet Santa.

This video is so precious to me. We don't have many videos of Cooper - we mostly take photographs. But this video shows so much of his personality - the way he talks, the way he is animated, the way he is curious, the way he is social and excitable.