This past Christmas season, I saw a number of family Christmas movies--as I stated in the original Waterlily Story blog--and they brought back memories of my childhood....
My parents took care of our needs and wishes in other ways but they didn't make a very big deal about Christmas. At the church school where I attended, the teachers taught about the religious side of Christmas and about giving.... My aunt and uncle's family had a full celebration of Christmas with gingerbread cookies and all the trimmings, plus the religious side, and they invited us over every year....
By the time I was 11 years old, if not before, at Christmastime, I had some of my own money from babysitting.... I decided to buy whatever small gifts I was able to afford for each of my family members--I wanted to contribute towards them having a nice Christmas! At that time, we didn't talk very much about love in our family, but I believe I was showing love to them by giving the gifts.
My parents had come from Europe, where the big Christmas celebration was done on Christmas Eve.... It ended up that we celebrated on both the Eve and on Christmas Day.... What my parents did like to do was to have a dinner, and gifts were given out afterward; and on the other day we were invited out.... So, we had two Christmases and I really enjoyed it! I enjoyed the entire Christmas season; and the religious part was meaningful to me, also.
Looking back now, I'm glad to see that my family had some love--not just from me--and some respectability.... And I believe God put it in my heart to give gifts to my family.... [I did it every year, once I started.] (My parents gave out a few, simple gifts as well.) Sometimes the police had told such nice stories about me and I felt bad for the problems...but it really wasn't all bad...! And one fairly recent movie had told how some Jewish people have enjoyed our traditional Christmas, too. (Jews have been involved in the police project.) I'm glad they wanted to relate on this point.
