Being away from home means not as much time to write here in the blog. I will leave it to whoever reads this to decide if this is good or bad. My hope is all had a good Christmas this year. Fort Worth was one soggy town on Christmas Eve. I still got out in the rain for the last minute shopping spree. Traffic was awful with the rain. You learn to just go slow while watching real close for the other drivers. Everyone around my house had a good holiday it seems. My daughter got some good stuff along with things to be used in college. They may be odd gifts to receive but they will come in handy later. My youngest is the one who did really well. He got everything that was on his list. He also gave me a gift.

My son waited all day Friday for 6:00 to roll around. We knew that he would not make it much past that before his patience level would be exhausted. There were three major requests from him for Christmas. Dad took care of all of those. We gathered together to open presents at the appointed time. Seems like he took me by the arm when it was time. Opening presents for him is less an art form and more a hurried task to take the paper off the boxes. We all waited and watched him go through each of his gifts. He was very excited upon finding those major things for him. After opening his stuff he stopped to take in his haul. Then he looked at me and said, "Dad, thank you! This was the greatest Christmas present ever!" I didn't need to open anything at that point. He gave me the best gift I could ask for.

None of this is said to be selfish or self promoting. It is said to remind us that what counts are relationships. Years from now I would expect that my memory will fail in trying to remember what material gifts I received. I will always remember that excitement in his voice when he said thank you. That one moment was more reward for any stress of being out searching for his gifts. It is the experience of his joy that I will cherish most. Christmas along with daily living is about knowing when to say thank you. It is about knowing who to thank as well. Maybe we can learn to thank God every so often for His incredible gifts. It may make His day as much as it did mine.

Bro. Trey