Have you heard of this yet? It keeps showing up for me. First someone mentioned it to me at work. “There is this really cool website with a video that’s about giving presence rather than presents.” Then it started showing up on a few blogs I follow.  And now I am the one at the dinner table saying, “You have to see this.”

I hope that no matter where you sit on the faith spectrum (and believe me, there are days when I am in the bleacher seats….meaning I am barely in the stadium…or whatever), this is worth the moment or two it takes to watch.

adventconspiracy.org (sorry, I can’t link…again…) It’s a very cool video.

Presence, not presents. We have all heard that before.  And for our family, we have always tried to make gifts, and give time. We have given plenty of charity gifts, too. But this year (and this was before we saw this), we decided to really, really stop the silliness. Steve and I are limiting ourselves to under $20.00. My mom and dad have agreed to gift the girls only. My brothers and their families have agreed to exchange the annual mailing of the gifts all over the country for monthly uploads to an online family photo album.

I love giving gifts. I love thinking about the people I love, and those I simply appreciate and picking out something they will enjoy. For the most part, I enjoy Christmas shopping. And wrapping. And opening. And I do enjoy getting gifts too!  I’m not trying to be Scrooge.

But I am wondering what it will be like without so much rustling paper this Christmas. Will be able to hear our hearts (yes, I know that’s corny). Will we be able to simply sit and enjoy each other more? Without the distractions of the piles of presents, will I finally have the presence of mind to win at Scrabble?

Oh, not that kind of presence? Well, closer, anyway.