{"id":659,"date":"2011-12-24T08:01:45","date_gmt":"2011-12-24T13:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayspirituality\/?p=659"},"modified":"2016-10-19T07:55:42","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T11:55:42","slug":"christmas-presents-under-the-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2011\/12\/christmas-presents-under-the-tree.html","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Presents Under the Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes, I surprise myself. But, I\u2019ve been busy writing, <a href=\"http:\/\/healingsciencetoday.wordpress.com\/2010\/10\/21\/solitude-is-overrated-the-sacred-is-active\/\">traveling<\/a>, and babysitting our daughter\u2019s pets, and it was until the other day, while walking through town, looking at twinkling colorful lights, that it dawned on me, people were shopping for Christmas presents.<\/p>\n<p>I wondered, \u201cHave I bought any presents this year, for anyone?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I almost thought I forgotten presents entirely. Our family and friends really don\u2019t need anything so it just doesn\u2019t occur to me to buy something for the sake of buying something.<\/p>\n<p>Then, I remembered. I did buy a present. I had gone to church about a month ago and there was a gift tree there, decorated with ornaments that listed items for children in the local community who needed them. I read an ornament and purchased an outfit for a toddler, wrapped it, and returned it to church to place under the tree.<\/p>\n<p>I do hope the child has a happy Christmas and many more to come.<\/p>\n<p>Merry <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayspirituality\/2011\/10\/breaking-traditions.html\">Christmas<\/a> everyone!<\/p>\n<p>From <em><a href=\"http:\/\/bookstore.trafford.com\/Products\/SKU-000137087\/21st-Century-Science-and-Health-with-Key-to-the-Scriptures.aspx\">Science and Health<\/a>, &#8220;<\/em>Can we lose our rich inheritance and God\u2019s gifts? No!&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes, I surprise myself. But, I\u2019ve been busy writing, traveling, and babysitting our daughter\u2019s pets, and it was until the other day, while walking through town, looking at twinkling colorful lights, that it dawned on me, people were shopping for Christmas presents. I wondered, \u201cHave I bought any presents this year, for anyone?\u201d I almost&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[301,225,302],"class_list":["post-659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community_world","category-smorgasbord","tag-best-gifts","tag-christmas-tradition","tag-give-from-heart"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christmas Presents Under the Tree - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2011\/12\/christmas-presents-under-the-tree.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christmas Presents Under the Tree - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sometimes, I surprise myself. But, I\u2019ve been busy writing, traveling, and babysitting our daughter\u2019s pets, and it was until the other day, while walking through town, looking at twinkling colorful lights, that it dawned on me, people were shopping for Christmas presents. 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