Annabelle's Wish

The day after Thanksgiving is an event at my house. We usually dedicate this day to decorating for Christmas. From decorating the Christmas tree to putting lights outside - we do the whole nine yards. In a family as big as mine, with all there is to do around the holidays, a lot of arguing tends to come along with it. And with stupid little arguments like those, I've learned that it's easy forget why Christmas was such a big deal when we were little.

The biggest problem in today's world is that as we've grown up, we've turned Christmas into yet another plastic, store-bought holiday. People don't even put much effort into gifts anymore - sure, the idea of a gift card is alright, but not much thought has to go into it. Grabbing a gift card off the shelf doesn't really require you to know much about a person to give it to them. Sometimes just sending out a Christmas card is all it takes. Taking the time to hand write a Christmas wish to someone lets them know you care.

Aside from giving gifts to people, Christmas is about more than that. It first started with the celebration of Jesus' birth. It was meant to remember the birth of a Savior, the most incredible gift of all. And that, in turn, encourages us to give gifts to others.

The movie Annabelle's Wish came out when I was about four years old, and it was a movie I always loved watching around the holidays. But now that I've grown up, it's reminded me of why I loved Christmas as a kid. It's because "Christmas Eve is a night tailor made for wishes." Everything starts with a wish. And that extends to more than just believing in Santa Clause. As we grow up, many of us forget the beauty of making a wish. Now, it exceeds to nothing more than a phrase mumbled over a birthday cake, if that. But there's a difference between the thing we want and the things we wish for. The things we want are usually really superficial. The new iPhone. A Wii U. An iPad. But when we dare to make a wish, it's usually for something much more elusive. Something we know we probably can't do or have for ourselves, but that we dare to hope will happen anyway.