I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year.  We had a great time with Janet’s family in West Texas and look forward to being together with my family this week.

While we were in Eldorado, we did something different with the adults this year.  We did a “White Elephant” type Christmas gift exchange.  There were no gag gifts; but everyone brought one nice gift to put in the pile for the White Elephant game.

Of course you want #1 or the last number –  so you can steal the best gift from someone else and I was blessed to get the number 2.  Can you believe that – a “2”.  Oh well – it was just a game and when I went to pick a gift it ended up being a bag of pecans with some cash attached to it!   Pretty sweet gift !

My niece, Kelsey Davis, drew #1 – which meant she was the first person to go, but she also got to steal from someone after everyone had opened their gift.  When she opened the gift she chose – it was a very nice rustic CROSS with a familiar verse on it.  She loves crosses, so we thought she’d probably keep her gift, but instead she took my pecans and cash!!!!!  

SHE ACTUALLY CHOSE THE CASH INSTEAD OF THE CROSS.   At least in this situation, it was just a game and she had a great reason for trading gifts – (she’s trying to get enough money together to join a Health Club in Abilene where she goes to college — and she did give me the pecans back).   Actually, I was glad to contribute to her cause!   However, as I thought about the choice between the cash and the cross, I wondered how many times we opt for something like that in the real world.   Just a thought.  As we begin a new year in a few days – what will you choose; The CASH or the CROSS?