Merry Christmas, People.

We did it.

We made it. Another Christmas over; finito.

The BF and I have been high fiving all night. When you are a parent, it is only then that you truly realize all the hours spent making Christmas happen.

It is. A. Lot. Like, a lot a lot.

I start in October with gift buying and my goal is to be 90% done by the beginning of December. Because it takes me another two weeks to wrap and organize.

Every year I find myself having a brief moment of panic where I ask, is it enough?

Did I do enough?

Will they be happy with what we’ve done?

Honestly, I’m a little ashamed to admit this — as our materialistic nature is on display. And Christmas, we are told, isn’t about the presents.

Except that it is. We are bombarded for months about what to buy or not buy and what we absolutely positively can’t live without and just have to have.

We are ever the consumption society. Said as I’m typing with my feet in an automatic heated foot massager.

In case you’re wondering — yes, it is utter and complete bliss. BF for The Win.

How do I teach a six year-old that it’s not about the gifts? The stuff? How do I keep myself in check?

This year I was particularly mindful to not over do it. That’s easy for James — no two year old is aware of how many gifts he or she did or did not receive.

Jack, is another story. I think it helps that we’ve never gone too overboard when it comes to gifts so there is not a built in expectation for excess.

Still, I found myself today feeling empty and quite frankly, a little disgusted.

By the time we had opened gifts from uncles, grandparents, cousins, and so forth, I was overwhelmed with WHERE to put all this stuff. 99% of which neither of my kids even needed.

We are overrun by toys as is. So now I need to clear out old toys to make room for new ones?

How … bizarre is this?! The whole concept of Christmas gifting just suddenly struck me as so odd today.

And completely a$$ backwards. The amount of pure need surrounding us is staggering.

I will gladly forgo a few gifts for my kids so that someone else can give a gift to their child, or somehow help them in another needed way.

I cannot help but believe that we can solve big issues with a simple approach of doing what we can.

Truly, I only felt the real meaning of Christmas once this season. And that was when I called the utility company to pay for someone’s bill. This proved a little more challenging than I first assumed.

I was initially told I needed the last four digits of a social security number and the person’s name. But the whole point of this was to call and pay a bill for someone who couldn’t — wasn’t there a list they could look up for those who were up for disconnect?

Long story short : there is – I just had to talk to the right person. I gave a monetary range I was willing to contribute to and before I knew it, paid a woman’s bill whose husband has cancer and has sunk all of her money into medical bills.

I hung up feeling better than I have in months. I hung up knowing that we only truly get when we give and all this stuff?

At the end of the day — it does not matter. But what we DO matters. Who we are being matters.

I’m taking that with me into 2021.