New traditions...

Family traditions are some of the best things about Christmas. And as we have started our own traditions, having been married for 5 years, we are yet again creating new ones...

As some of you may know, I work in an Oncology/Hematology office. One of the hardest things about working there is losing our patients who have been battling cancer for short or long terms. What sucks the most is that cancer affects people of all ages, gender and race. I'm sure we all know someone personally who has battled with cancer or has even lost their lives to it.
This year, a couple different signs were posted in our lunch/break room at work and it was asking for people to donate towards 2 different families. One family had recently lost a young wife/mother to cancer, leaving behind 2 young kids and her husband. The other is another young gentleman but he is still fighting his cancer. However, due to him not being able to work, they have lost their home and car. His wife works very hard to still provide for the family, which includes a toddler.

All that to say, I felt like my "worries" and "troubles" became miniscule in comparison to what these families are dealing with.  I went home that day and told my husband that I didn't want us to buy gifts for each other, but would rather we start a new tradition of finding a family that we could bless each year. He was in total agreement and admitted that he had wanted to do that long ago, but wanted me to "come up with the idea". :)
We agreed that we could still buy each other a small gift that might fit in the stocking but it still had to also be cheap. We have been blessed by God in the fact that when we need things, we can (typically) just go and buy it. When we need a new pair of shoes, or pants, we get them and we don't have to wait for Christmas to get them. Now I realize their are bigger items that we wish we could have (newer appliances, ipads, etc), but those are more wants than needs. I hope that we can also begin to teach our boys, even at a young age, that Christmas is SO MUCH MORE than getting/receiving gifts. Everything about society teaches us to be more materialistic. In reality, every summer I end up taking so much junk to the thrift store or have a yard sale because our house fills up with more stuff. It seems to be a never ending cycle.


Please, please know that I am not saying any of this this is to make us sound pious or proud. Instead, I am sharing this because I hope and pray it will challenge you to think about what you and your family can start doing by helping more people in need. And maybe even help you not clutter up your home even more. :)

*we still bought the boys gifts, but we are cutting back and not overdoing it. We still want them to be excited about Christmas and opening presents on Christmas day. This was more about Jamie & I cutting back. But I hope as the boys get older that they can begin to understand why we do what we do and join in on the excitement of helping others.