Christmas Shopping

12/15/2017

Christmas is coming,
The goose is getting fat,
Please, do put a penny
in an old man's hat.

The part of Christmas that stresses me out the most is...

...buying presents.

No one who knows me would ever think my love language is gifts. But for many people in my family, gifts are a significant way they express their love for others.
It's just not mine... not even close.

If someone were to ask me, "What was the best thing you ever got for Christmas?" I'd have to say, "the year I didn't get anything except for some quality time with my family."

That's my love language (at least its part of it). Tied with Physical Touch, Acts of Service, and Words of Affirmation, Quality Time is how I express my love to others.

Snuggling on the couch with my wife and kids, taking them to the park or out for a treat, telling them how much I love them, doing the dishes every night. Anything but buying gifts.

via GIPHY

If someone were to ask me, "What's your favorite Christmas memory?" I could easily tell them it was the year I wrote a letter to each of my family members. It included a list of my favorite traits about them, a short poem and a verse of scripture. I taped each letter to a picture frame filler and presented them all at once after all the other gifts had been opened. They all cried. I cried. It's my most treasured Christmas memory.

This year, with money being tight, my wife and I agreed to not buy gifts for each other, but make sure the kids have a nice (but simple) Christmas with one gift from us, and one from Santa.

She's been handling the shopping because she knows what they want and gets more excited about those things. Usually, I try to do something more personal, though it feels smaller. A few years ago, I gave our girls coupons for Daddy-Daughter Dates. They loved them, knowing they could reserve and plan time for just the two of us.

I'll be doing it again this year, but this time all four kids will get six "Dad Time" coupons for movies, trips to the dollar store, treats, video arcades, etc. I'm looking forward to scheduling out my weekends and spending Quality Time with each one of them..