Tales
Less is More
We have settled into a new tradition for our family Christmas. After watching a few years of the girls rip into 30 presents in 10 minutes, we wanted a change. They attacked them with the intensity of an addict looking for the next hit, reaching for the next one to open before barely noticing what the last present was. From a Buddhist point of view, it put some human nature’s greatest hits on display - being consumed by trying to fulfill the insatiable craving, getting lost in the imagined future at the expense of the beautiful preset, hoping for something that might be rather than appreciating what is, then lamenting what is in comparison to what might have been. As a holiday that could be used to celebrate love, generosity, foregiveness, and compassion, the biggest holiday in America blindly passes on a materialist tradition that seems to teach values that are the exact opposite.
While not entirely abandoning the Christmas present tradition, we tried a more measured approach that provides the space to open the presents in a less rave-like way. The girls open their Santa presents, then they each choose one preset to open per day after that (assuming they have time). This stretches presents well through the winter and can even make it into the spring. Taken in smaller doses, the girls have more time to appreciate the presents individually and spend less time as insatiable materialistic monsters.
Other than the winter Holiday, the month held some wonderful time with loved ones. Meals with John and Molly, Laura and Harry, Rachel and Will, the Kimball crowd, Brandi and Vincenzo (with their choose-your-own-adventure story dinner entertainment), Eli (the girls' favorite camp counselor), Bump and Jack, Ethan and Jane, and the Moore's. Oma and Opa were wonderful hosts in Minnesota, where the girls got scared by the ghost of Jacob Marley in their first Christmas Carol, and learned to help make Oma’s signature cinnamon rolls.
The girls surprise us with breakfast in bed for the firsr time ever on Christmas Eve morning, showing us what Christmas should be all about.