Have you ever gotten a Christmas letter from someone and rolled your eyes? I have. But, the older I get, the more I mature and I've decided to embrace the bragging! (Plus, the minute I turned 40, I quit giving a rip about what anyone thinks of me thus making me much more secure and comfortable in my own skin...so there you go.)

So now that I actually like to get Christmas letters, it seems that I don't get that many. Could it be because of the instantaneous society we live in with Facebook and text messaging? Or, could it be that all my friends quit caring about what I think too so they don't send them anymore? Either way, I still think it's fun to connect and read about people's lives and their accomplishments...RIGHT?

I would love it if the whole world would be like me and put all the dirty laundry out there...literally! I gave up sending Christmas cards all together after I had my fifth baby (that was nine years ago). Back then, I had five boys under age 11. Life was a moment by moment trip to the Emergency Room and well, writing out Christmas cards to my friends and family was low on my priority list.

Then, a few years back, I decided to send out a Christmas Letter to everyone. And, instead of writing about all my boys being honor students and memorizing scripture, I wrote about their not-so-bright side! I shared about how my son Luke got an air soft gun for his birthday and after my son Adam threw a snowball at his window, Luke decided it would be a good idea to shoot Adam in the face with it. Turns out Luke is a bad shot and missed Adam's eye by about a half an inch. Lucky Adam...He doesn't have to learn Braille!

I also shared about a phone call I got from the school...it was my son Joel's teacher...."Mrs. DeGraaf?" Yes, I said. "YOUR SON IS DRIVING ME NUTS!" Hmmm, join the club I thought as I listened to her retell me the story of how my creative fifth grader was making figurines out of erasers and paper clips and entertaining the class with them! I recently saw that same teacher in the grocery store and I'm pretty sure she's thankful that she doesn't have a DeGraaf in her class this year. (She has a two year reprieve before she gets my youngest!)

The bottom line about Christmas letters is to read them and remember that everyone has a little YUCK in their lives, they just aren't always brave enough or secure enough or dumb enough to share it with you. Jesus said it best when he said...."In this world, you will have trouble. If it weren't so, I would have told you." I mean, c'mon, lighten up and laugh anyway!!!