The Harbin Christmas Card

Each Christmas season my wife and I put almost as much time and effort into brainstorming and implementing our Christmas card as we do figuring out and buying Christmas presents for everyone on our list. We each have a passion for making people laugh, and we figured that if it's the one mailer we send to our 250+ friends and family each year that we might as well remind them of our quirky personalities! Whether they find it entertaining or even understand it (at least what in our minds we thought was funny...), I think our passion for making people smile motivates us to come up with something new and creative each year.

I wrote a couple weeks ago about Thanksgiving being a reminder of gratitude, but what I appreciate about the Christmas season is a reminder of giving. Not as much about the gifts as it is about the spirit of giving memories, joy, and happiness to the ones you love. With the kids out of school for a couple weeks, it allows us to gift our kids with special memories and traditions that are unique to this season. The hot chocolate, the elf on the shelf, driving around looking at Christmas lights, 24/7 Christmas music, turkey on Christmas day, and of course getting to experience the pure excitement and joy our kids have about the magic of Santa. My kids gallop around with an extra sense of joy in anticipation of the next new experience and the hope and joy of what is to come. Being able to give that gift to my kids is one of the most rewarding parts of being a parent.

So this Holiday season, in however you celebrate it, I hope you can embrace the season of giving joy and celebrate it with the same excitement and hope as the kids.