Gold * Frankincense * Myrrh

My husband is the pickiest husband to shop for; I mean seriously picky.  One year he mentioned he wanted a tool box that would be easy to lift atop of a ladder (but not a tool belt mind you), so I bought him what I thought was a nice, but simple hard plastic toolbox.  Upon opening the gift he said (of course a 'safe' save on his part) that he liked the gift only to ask me later if he could exchange if for a Craftsman metal toolbox.  This threw me for a loop because I thought being metal would be more difficult for him to carry, especially with the added weight of metal tools, measuring tapes, screws, etc.  A little saddened by his desire to exchange the gift I had put a lot of thought into (not to mention got on sale), I slightly and relunctantly gave into his desire to exchange the item, though it meant it would no longer be something 'I' got for him.  We decided that year that because he is so very hard to shop for that from then on out we would emplement something similar that a friend of ours does for hard to shop family folk; they take a magazine or two to their liking and circle several items that they would purchase themselves if they were doing the ordering.  Then they leave that magazine 'out' for anyone (in my case my husband left it out for me), and this made it easy and secured that I would be giving my husband a Christmas present I knew, that I knew he would enjoy.  It also allowed for a small sense of surprise since he had circled several items he would have no clue as to which one I picked out to gift him with. 

So last year the twist came when we had walked into a local Christian book store and my husband had seen a beautiful display of  'gifts' the Three Wise Men had presented to Christ upon hearing about His birth.  My husband showed a very obvious love for the way the replocated gift was displayed in the store and thought it would be a tremendous tool to use in teaching our children about the fine presents Christ had received.  Even though, yes, he really wanted to use this display for a teaching method for our two young ones, he also was very impressed with the overall look, weight, and craftiness of the entire display.  So needless to say, I kept my 'eye' on that item in that local store and when I had heard they were selling out of the few boxes they had I decided it was a must have, not just my husband, but for the whole family.  It was a pretty penny I won't lie, but worth every 1/2 cent.

So even though this is a gift given from myself to my husband I am happy to say it has never once been asked for an exchange, regift, or other item in it's place.  Though this item was on the pricey side (as I leaned to mentioning above) both hubby and I feel it's already been a tremendous blessing in our household.  Our 6 and 4 year seem to finally be understanding the true meaning of Christmas and we have seen in their eyes this year the precious joy they are finding in the salvation of knowing what Christ has done as a genuine sacrificial love for them both (though our 4 year old is still trying to grasp the concept of this all).

Such a simple gift but in all actuality it is the only 'real' gift that is of importance in teaching our children the intense, incredible, love that so many others including Kings had adorned Him with even before his first birthday.  This teaching of 'Christ's Gifts' is a new tradition in our family, one that follows an older tradition that we've done since both our children were infants and that is the eve before Chirstmas we go to our local grocery store and buy 2  metalic birthday balloons that read 'Happy Birthday' and we pray, dedicating them to Christ and both 'Jewel' and 'Mr. Happy' joyfully release the balloons up to Heaven for Christ to 'receive'. 

Just recently I had learned that Oriental Trading actually sells entire party packages for 'Happy Birthday Jesus' supplies to celebrate His special day.  I had never known this before and when I did a Google search for 'Jesus Birthday Balloon' their site popped right up; they have party hats, party plates, balloons, even banners that read 'Happy Birthday Jesus!'. (You can view them by click on the link above if you're curious or interested yourself). This really, really touched me and I think I might just order a few of the balloons and party hats for the kids, and my husband and I.  If there's one thing I pray above everything else is that my kids know the TRUE meaning of Christmas and not allow it to be sugar coated with 'eating supper with Santa' at church or various other confusing and misleading (in mine and my husbands opinions at least) messages, especially for such young and impressionable minds at the ages of 4 and 6.  Of course we do not judge how others choose to celebrate their holidays, especially Christmas, but for us and our household Christmas is to Holy to sugarcoat it with anything other than the truth; Jesus.

In this we also read our kids the kids storybook (for their age of understanding) "My Merry Christmas and The Real Reason For Christmas Joy" by Linda Clearwater.  This age appropriate book gives insight to all the clues as to a lot of traditions like stringing lights, decorating the tree, opening Christmas gifts, and ultimately the real purpose for Christmas Joy; Jesus Christ, a gift to all who are willing and open to receive Him.

   

If you have young children yourself and would like for them to understand the meaning behing the Christmas tree 'topper' or other traditions this is a great book that we personally have found our own children to understand very easily.  I hope that the small photo's of this book that I am sharing gives you a clear understanding as to the meaning behind this book in case it is something that may appeal to you as well. 

Merry Christmas and may the Good Lord be with all of you the season, guiding and leading us all into His perfect plan of Salvation for all the World to know.