Christmas

Hello all you out in blog land.
I thought that it was high time that I pause with the all deep and meaningful posts and just say what I have been up to.

Christmas was quite nice. I did pretty much exactly the same as last year but I enjoyed it more. I guess I have been getting more out of that stuff lately which is really good. Christmas eve I went to my cousin's townhouse in Artarmon for a cool BBQ lunch and hang out. That was good because I dont see my cousins very often.

Christmas day I went to church with my dad and Helen (step mum). Grrr! Why do people have to give such watered down sermons at Christmas! The guy talked about the historical biblical context of the Christmas story which I thought was a good idea but then he basically said that Jesus was God's back up plan when option A (the covenant with Moses) didnt work the way He wanted. Clearly the bible says that God has only ever had one plan.
Why does that matter? Well it's not in the scope of this blog, but if people arent sure why it is an important issue I can write about it later.

After church I went with Dad and Helen to Helen's daughter's family's house to watch their kids unwrap their presents. After that it was to the Helen's son's house to say 'hi' for an hour or so. Then off to Mum and Terry (step father)'s house to hang out with them for Christmas lunch. That was quite nice and I was able to see Mum and Terry and the Terry related people.

Due to the better pay of the new job I was able to buy nicer presents for people which I really quite enjoyed. On the recieving end, Dad and Helen gave me a Westfields voucher. Helen's Daughters family gave me some coffee mugs, Mum and Terry gave me a Myer voucher and a couple of nice polo style shirts. My step sister Jenni gave me a 6 pack of beer and so did Terry's brother's family.

I can see that, for me at least, the effect of having more money means that I am able to take much more pleasure in the giving than the recieving. The giving doesnt hurt that much financially, and the recieving isnt such a big deal (I could just go buy some item I really wanted). I would probably say that another year's maturity is in there somewhere as well but these things still seem interesting to ponder in the whole 'where do you get your contentment from?'.
I am increasingly becoming aware of how easy the trap of loving money is to fall into. Please pray that I love God above all.