For the first time in my life my family is not exchanging gifts this Christmas.

It is still a day before our traditional gift-giving time as I write this—we’ve exchanged them on both Christmas eve and Christmas morning over the years—so I can’t say for sure how it feels to not have any presents to open.

But I can say that so far the decision to not exchange presents has turned out to be a pretty nice gift.

Not only has it eliminated the shopping and wrapping that often turn out to be overly stressful—at least for a wrapping-challenged person like me–it has helped to keep the focus on more important things.

A couple of these things for me are faith and family.

This Christmas I am especially grateful for the gift of my parents.

They’ve been through some pretty big challenges in recent months so it’s a huge blessing that we are able to celebrate with them.

Back in August my Father fell and broke two vertebrae in his neck and his road to recovery has been a challenging one. But he and my Mother have persevered, which makes being able to celebrate with them such a great gift this Christmas.

Another gift that I am especially grateful for this Christmas—and every day of the year—is the gift of Jesus.

He’s always been a part of my life, thanks to my parents bringing me to Sunday School when I was a kid.

But 15 years ago I hit a bad patch in my life, the worst of which came over the Christmas holiday.

There are many things that got me back on my feet–friends, family, health care –but the biggest help has come through taking up a daily Christian faith practice.

For me, turning my life over to the guidance of the savior who we celebrate at Christmas is a gift that keeps on giving.

All of this is not to say that I don’t appreciate gifts that come in wrappers.

Maybe next year we’ll go back to exchanging gifts. In the meantime, I am perfectly happy with all of the other gifts in my life.

Chief among them is my buddy Caleb. All of these years and I never tried until now to put a Santa hat on him. Being the laid-back guy that he is, I’m not surprised that he doesn’t mind it.

Merry Christmas everyone!