My how Christmas has changed

You know it wasn't that many years ago that my kids were waking me up on Christmas day to open presents. I could feel the excitement, and tension in the air on those mornings. The kids were excited to see what Santa brought them. The tension was provided by me and my wife. Would the kids like what they got? Did we manage to pull out another successful Christmas for our kids... by the skin of our teeth?

We as a family have always known the true meaning of Christmas, and I remember reminding the kids when they were young to give thanks to God for his son, but some where along the years, as the kids got older, and we moved around, and away from the Church, the most important part of Christmas ended up in the back seat, and I do not refer to the presents we bought.

Now that the kids are older... 13, 19, and 23, I find myself sitting here Christmas morning writing this blog about my kids and Christmas, while they are either still sleeping or, in my oldest daughters case, opening presents with her daughter in Massachusetts. The other two that are still sleeping won't even stir until ten or eleven.

One of the most memorable times of Christmas for me was after I met my wife. Her family all got together at Christmas, as mine had, but without the chaos. When her family got together, it meant brothers and sisters, cousins and nieces, aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas, new babies and old. There was lots of noise of course, but one thing was lacking that my family had in abundance... the chaos. With my new family it was like... organized chaos. And yes, there is such a thing.

My wife's grandmother always got the guys (my father in law not included) the same thing, which I am not complaining about. There was probably twenty different males to buy for, at various ages along the spectrum. For me, I still have the gloves she gave me the last Christmas that I saw her before going back into the military, what's more, I still use them.

It has been nearly ten years since we have all been together again, and yes I miss it. I will always miss it. Both my in laws' parents have passed, as well as one of my wife's aunts, where we once went on New Years. We still go to my in laws house on Thanksgiving and Christmas, but as family's often do, ours has evolved as well, and Christmas will never be quite the same.

I look forward to future Christmas's with my kids and grandkids, and my in laws. Hopefully our family will evolve again to bring us all back together once more at Christmas time. That would be a Christmas present from God I think, a miracle of sorts.