‘Three-gift Christmas’ parents try to bring some reason to the season

I can see our family doing something like this in the future.

If that mountain of presents in the living room is blocking your view of the Christmas tree, straining your budget and troubling your soul, there is another way.

Inspired by the notion that Jesus received three gifts from the Wise Men on December 25 — gold, frankincense and myrrh – many parents are saying they, too, want a three-gift Christmas for their children.

Some do it for religious reasons. Others try it to save money, ease the stress of the holidays or get away from the commercialism that permeates December.

Stacy Myers, a mom of two who lives in Marion, Va., said all of those factors played a role when she and her husband adopted the rule after their first child was born.

“We decided we wanted to simplify Christmas here at our house by using the three-gift rule so that we could focus on the real reason for the season, which is the birth of Jesus, instead of ‘Gimme, gimme, gimme’ and ‘What can I put on my list?’” Myers said.

“It just comes down to trying to change your mindset how you view this time of year — kind of switch it to family and your faith instead of stuff, because stuff just piles up in your house.”

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Bag of Randomness

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Grab a tissue – Moving Without Mom

When Ben Nunery and his wife Ali got married in 2009, they had just closed on their new house, so they took the opportunity to take their wedding photos in the empty home. 

Just four and a half years later, after Ali’s tragic death from cancer at at the age of 31 in 2011, Ben and his young daughter Olivia got ready to move to a new house, but they wanted to say goodbye to the old one. So they recreated these special photos from Ben and Ali’s wedding day, as a way to remember the happy times.

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Bag of Randomness

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  • I know Hanukkah is over, but I like the boldness of this picture.
  • News people, please stop using interactive touch screen monitors when talking to the audience.
  • I’m sending some photos to Vietnam and instead of regularly filling out a customs declaration form at the post office, this time I thought I’d do it online at usps.gov.  Surprisingly the site wasn’t compatible using Google Chrome.  I was also surprised that the online form didn’t recognize foreign characters like the ones in my uncle’s name: Nguyễn Đức Phú Nhân.  When I tried to enter those values it stated the fields were left blank.
  • DaughterGeeding asked why I was buying a certain envelope (for the pictures) and WifeGeeding explained to her that I was sending pictures to my family in Vietnam.  I had to correct her by saying I was sending pictures to OUR family in Vietnam.  Hey, I don’t have much family to begin with and the amount of family on her side can be a bit intimidating, and I think it’s important for my kids to know they have relatives  on my side, some across the globe, even though there aren’t that many.
  • If I didn’t watch sports there would be a lot less stress in my life and I don’t know if I’d like that.
  • Anyone that has watched the Cowboys since Parcells has left wasn’t surprised by that collapse yesterday.  DaughterGeeding has better clock management skills than Jason Garrett.  Heck, even his friend Troy Aikman called him out on it, as hard as it was for him, even though he kind of did it indirectly.
  • If I could write the perfect script for Romo, it would be for Seattle to win homefield throughout the playoffs, and the Cowboys squeaking in and beating the Seahawks so he would rid his demons.  But that will never happen.
  • Mack Brown is out of a job, maybe he can coach the Cowboys.  I’m kidding, I’m kidding.  Even I wouldn’t want that.  But I wonder who will fill that vacancy at Texas.  Off hand, I’d like John Gruden, Lovie Smith, or Vanderbilt or Auburn’s head coach.  It would be weird if Aggie Gary Kubiak was approached, but then again, Darrell Royal was a Sooner and I haven’t kept abreast on who potential candidates actually are.  One other name I’d drop would be Mike Shanahan as he had kids that attended UT.
  • Everytime you hit snooze, this alarm clock will make a donation to charity from your funds.
  • I play fight with my dogs and they know when their bites are too much, so I trust them, but I don’t think I could trust a tiger.
  • I actually have to drive to an office building today to get my laptop fixed.  Of all things, I can’t get spell check to work on any Microsoft Office products and it’s not a settings issue as three techs have toyed around with it as well as myself.  They thought they could just upgrade my version of Office and that still didn’t work.
  • The ’60 Minutes’ segment on the NSA was interesting, especially the part of getting high schoolers to break codes and the like.
  • I think the success of people binge watching shows on Netflix will bring more current shows to Netflix.  The ‘Breaking Bad’ finale would not be as great as it were if people didn’t have easy access to watch past episodes.  If shows are willing to make that connection easier through places like Netflix, it’s a win for the show and the viewer.
  • Speaking of BrBa, I like this cosplay, it’s very Jekylle/Hyde.
  • I love how Beyonce dropped an album unexpectedly out of nowhere.  That was bold and unprecedented and the buzz it created makes it a genius move.  I think that “OX” song is going to blow up.
  • For months I’d drive by GracePoint church, formerly First Baptist Coppell, and wonder why all the construction especially since they built a new large fancy building in the last five or so years that already support their needs.  Well, we received one of their mailings stating  a lot of glass was added for symbolic purposes and something else was built along functional and symbolic reasons, something I didn’t find all that encouraging.  But I will hand it to them for providing a list of local churches of various denominations at the bottom of the mailing encouraging people to attend any of them.
  • Speaking of church, these folks have a lot of faith working on the church.
  • The Frankfurt Airport has a Winter Coat Storage Service for people who are traveling to warmer climates.
  • North Texas Mayors Hatch Plan to Build Dallas-to-Fort Worth Bike Trail‏
  • This story is a bit dated, but I just now ran across it and it made me wonder what his life must now be like, it’s almost like having a super power or being Data from ‘Star Trek TNG’ – Stroke victim unable to feel sadness
  • Also a bit dated, but here’s a slideshow of desks from some famous over-achievers in film, television, fashion, and media which points out certain items.  I’m not sure why, but Lorne Michaels desk stood out the most to me.  Speaking of Lorne Michaels, is there another Canadian that been more influential to the pop-culture of the United States?  He’s responsible for SNL of course, but you also have to give him credit for launching the careers of the folks like Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Chris Rock, Will Ferrell, and many others.
  • This boy lost a wrestling match to a girl, the ref’s face says it all.
  • This GIF made me think of the movie Idiocracy because all I did was watch it over and over laughing.
  • A six-year-old who donated his piggy bank to NASA got a call from the last man to walk on the moon.
  • 6-Year-Old’s Christmas Wish for Prosthetic Arm Will Be Fulfilled, Thanks to Online Donors
  • Muslims help rebuild Catholic church in Zamboanga
  • The coin used for the cointoss in this year’s Army-Nave game was done using the silver dollar that JFK was scheduled to flip before the 1963 Army-Navy game.
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