Christmas morning 2006

Here's one quick look back at Christmas 2006. As always, our kids were slathered with gifts. Although we did note a change this past year - smaller gifts and fewer gifts. DVDs, I-Pods, and the like made for easier wrapping, less midnight hair-pulling with "some assembly required...and oh, by the way, we hope you can read Spanish" madness.

Notice that I said the gifts were smaller and fewer, but not less expensive... This is a whole other discussion that I wont breach at the moment (rumor has it my wife actually reads this thing!).

Other than a few of us feeling sick on Christmas it was a very good day. There were lots of family, lots of good food (for those who could eat, I got to watch mostly) and some genuine Christmas cheer.

I think the best example of the spirit of Christmas was when a group of about 5 Middle-School students gathered in our kitchen to bake cookies for a few elderly folks in a nearby nursing home. We delivered these cookies and the students spent about 40 minutes talking with the residents, taking pictures, listening to their stories, and patiently answering the same questions over and over again. "No, we don't speak German...Yes, these cookies are for you." Many gifts exchanged hands in our family this past year, but that was probably the best one.