I had a great Christmas filled with family. It really was wonderful. Even better was that I was fully engaged in it this year, instead of trying my best to relax. Life has almost returned to normal after most of my family have returned home. Yesterday my wife and I thought we would spend a bit of time getting the kids rooms back in order. Well 8 hours later we had almost completed cleaning out every cupboard, drawer, nook and cranny in our entire house. I am amazed (as I suppose we all are on a regular basis) at how much stuff we had to throw away as well as how much stuff we have to donate. Where on earth has it all come from? We must be a marketers dream audience!

I certainly felt bad when I saw how spoilt my children got this Christmas. I have always thought that my children have too many toys and so this clean up became an opportunity for them to get involved in deciding what toys should be donated to a worthy cause. I hope to get them involved in handing out their toys to other children so that they can experience the reward of giving instead of always just receiving. I hope that this will be an interesting lesson in charity for them.

Truth be told, it was not just the kids who have too much stuff but us too. I don’t like the idea of keeping stuff in case something or other happens in the future. What tends to occur is that my stuff takes up space and gathers dust. When I do want to use it, it is generally out of date and useless and I have to go out and get another. I have decided that I am far happier giving stuff away to somebody who needs it now. I certainly found a whole heap of things that would do better in other people’s hands. I must say that I found it a rather liberating experience – who needs so much stuff anyway?

Another thing that this Christmas filled with family has taught me is that things cannot be done my way all the time. I am finding that I learn more and more by not doing things my way. I know what will happen if I do it my way! I suppose that this is one of the joys of life, doing and seeing things from another’s points of view. Is it not sad, that for the most part, we refuse to accept that there can be another viewpoint? Take the assassination of Benazir Bhutto yesterday….will we ever learn? Have we failed to be the best humans we can be? Can we make a difference in our own lives? If we do make a tiny difference, is it good enough?