December is, indeed, the busiest time of the year for our family. It marks my husband’s birthday on the 5th, the anniversary of my son’s successful open-heart surgery on the 16th, our wedding anniversary on the 19th, not to mention the endless reunions, Christmas parties, and other celebrations in between. The highlight of December is, of course, our Christmas Day celebration which begins at dinnertime on the 24th in our home, where my husband and children prepare a noche buena meal before we open our gifts. Christmas Eve is spent with my parents and Christmas Day is reserved for the Pangilinan side of our family.
Every year, we make it a point to give gifts that have been handmade by each member of our family. That way, we give part of ourselves in each present. We have decided that we will try our best to minimize wastage as much as possible. Since we have been teaching our children the importance of caring for the environment, this year, we used mostly recycled materials as gifts. For years, I have been able to gather quite a number of wine bottles. I also asked my friends Roni and Melissa Joseph of Ralph’s Wines for their discarded wine bottles to make into hand-painted vases. We used the technique my children learned from their art teacher, Sani Sapaula, to create the marble paint effect and voila! The wine bottles were transformed into wonderful works of art! For our Christmas wrappers, we used old newspapers and wrapped our gifts as creatively as possible. More than the gifts though, we also try as a family to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas and to draw from each other our thoughts about the season. Here are some musings that I’ve gathered that hopefully could also inspire you to focus on the real essence of the season. As we were discussing Christmas, I asked my daughter Ella what she thought of the season. She shared that upon receiving an e-mail about Jesus and Santa Claus, she realized that though she was very much aware of the fact that it is Jesus’ birthday we are celebrating, her focus has been on what she hopes to get from Santa. So now, she does not want to hope for what material blessings she could get but to focus on how thankful she should be. She has noticed that there is so much stress on being frantic and stressed out because of obligations for Christmas, and she wants no part of it. She adds that Santa could make her sit on his lap for a photo, but Jesus is someone she could lean on throughout the year. Though Santa gives gifts, Jesus gave himself as a gift.
Meanwhile, while thinking of adjectives from A to Z to describe Jesus, my son Donny said, ”Ma, O for Odd. Jesus is odd.” I said, “Donny, Jesus is not odd. “But he is odd, Mama. He’s not like us. He’s not one of us — he’s God. That makes him odd,” Donny insisted.
He’s right! When I shared that moment with my sister-in-law Angeli Valenciano, she said that is what her pastor Paul Chase said about Jesus. That he was abnormal. He walked on water. He was supernatural. He got fish from a poor boy and fed 5,000 from it. She said, “Yes, Donny spoke with wisdom.”
Here’s another touching story about faith in God: For many years, my son Benjamin had approached our disabled pastor at church. Every time my son would see him, Benj would tell him to stand from his wheelchair and walk. The pastor would just look at me for help because Benj would not stop telling him to rise up and walk even if he was already told this was not possible as the pastor’s legs were crushed during a car accident more than 10 years ago.
Well, last Sunday, my son rushed to me and excitedly said, “Mama, I have to show you something, come!” I couldn’t hear him well at first because there was an ongoing Christmas presentation. Benj brought me to the pastor, beamed, and then exclaimed, “Look, no more wheelchair!” What a wonderful Christmas miracle!
Finally, here’s one from my daughter Hannah: “Good is hard to do but that dose (does) not stop you from the right thing. Everybody is not perfit (perfect) but you can try your best and you can be called the Best. You have a right to do your best and love all you want. Because God is good all the time. You might think that, “why, why do you have to be good?” Because God has your heart in His hand and no matter what you do or what you are, God loves you. And that folks, is the reason for the season.
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E-mail me at mommytalk@businessworks.com.ph.