Christmas stories

Miriam Schoenig, Fort Collins, CO

Last year my father passed away right before Christmas. For most of the month of December, we had spent as much time as possible in the Hospice facility next to his bedside. Planning for Christmas became an afterthought until one of my nephews invited us all to his home to celebrate. With little time to make preparations, we each volunteered to bring a part of the meal. But what about gifts?

It was agreed that we would each contribute to our church camp in lieu of gifts. But since it is such fun to watch each other open gifts, we agreed to find something in our homes that we were willing (or eager) to pass on. Our "white elephant" gift exchange brought a lot of laughs as gifts were traded.

We had a wonderful, unplugged Christmas last year. Our focus was on the joy of being together, and our church camp was blessed in the process! In fact, we're going to do it again this year.

How have you unplugged Christmas? Share a story of a particularly memorable Christmas.