Having trouble getting into the whole Christmas thing

Christmas is a weird time of year for me. On one hand, it's great to think of others and spend time with family, but on the other hand, I just have trouble with the concept of Christmas. The whole history of Christmas really bothers me....a lot. No where in the Bible does it say Jesus was born in December, let alone December 25th. (Please correct me if I'm wrong on that). I used to think that a day that made everyone think about Jesus couldn't be wrong, but I have changed my stance on that. It's a fine line to walk when we start adding things to the Bible. No where is it said that the New Testament Christians celebrated Jesus' birth. However, we are commanded to celebrate his death and resurrection every week. It's hard being in the minority that doesn't celebrate Jesus' birth on Christmas.

And then there is the whole commercialism aspect. When I was growing up we had very little money so when I got presents at Christmas I was very, very grateful. It's hard to teach that to my kids when they are given everything they want and more, especially since I have the means to do so. We don't necessarily to overboard on buying them presents, but we aren't the only ones giving them presents, so it's hard to say, "Oh don't get them anything" or "Don't spend over this much money" or "Homemade gifts are always appreciated." I will never forget the first Christmas I spent at Tim's house. It was horrifying to me how many gifts we all got. I wanted to be sick at the money that was being wasted. In my family we did one or two gifts per person. In Tim's family it was a contest to see who would get the biggest pile. And it only got worse when we had Kami. It seems that last year was a little better, though. Everyone got nice things, but there was the excess that seemed to dominate in years past. Or maybe I've become used to it and that is a very scary thought!

All that being said. We did decorate our Christmas tree tonight. It's fun for the kids and I do like pulling all the ornaments out one by one and remembering the story behind each one. I'll do a post soon all about our tree. It should really be a scrapbook page, but I don't know when I'll get around to doing that. So I'll at least post the journaling and probably the pictures here soon.