Doing the Whole Thing Differently

Things used to be a whole lot easier during the holidays - producing Christmas wonder in the kiddos meant a trip to the local toy store and maybe a few online additions. Christmas morning they would stand in front of the tree amazed at the many boxes wrapped in beautiful paper. Inside were building toys, books, and games that we would all play with together.

Fast forward a few years.

Electronics are everywhere in our world. At any given time there are laptops, I-Phones, and  I-Pads scattered all around our house. These days there's always a brand new piece of must have technology - at the cost of several hundred dollars. I am resentful of it all as it steals little pieces of our time together - of course I can't imagine trying to do all of the things that we do without modern conveniences. We're always trying to create a balance.

As we contemplated gifts for the kids this year we decided to forgo the giving of many "things." After all - they have so much - and the one thing we are always wishing for is more time together. It's what they ask for - time to talk, time to 

play games, time to just be together. This year, along with our traditional giving of footy pajamas, they would all four open packages containing itineraries of a family road trip we planned. There will be time to relax, play games, and talk as well as have a few adventures.

We were completely confident about this gift up until a few days before Christmas - then we started to wonder, "Will they be disappointed?" "Was this a bad idea?" We just didn't know what to think.

Then the time to open gifts was upon us - we saved the kids' until the very last. And as one by one they opened their gifts we saw big smiles and excitement - and we knew we'd done a good job. "We're going on a road trip!!" "This is so awesome!" Hearing the kids' enthusiasm was music to our ears.

I am now writing this while in the car at the 8th hour of our 15 hour road trip. We've already had a good time - we honk the horn every time we pass through a new state and half of us are still wearing footy pajamas. We have some of our favorite games packed - chess, Monopoly, Connect Four and a new one, Betrayal of the House on the Hill. It's a good feeling to know we're just going to be together for the next few days. It's a relief not to have bought a bunch of "stuff" - most of which would have been forgotten after a short while. As the kids get older and time moves faster and faster I'm thinking that the best gifts we can give them are knowledge of the bigger world,experiences, and time together to just be.