![\"Christmas](\"http:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Christmas-Presents.jpg\")
\nWe had a wonderful Christmas. Like in many households, we have the common practice of unwrapping one present at a time, then another. Sometimes each unwrapping is punctuated by individualized explanatory gratefulness:<\/p>\n
\u201cOh this is perfect \u2026 what I\u2019ve always wanted!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh how wonderful and beautiful \u2026!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my, you shouldn\u2019t have \u2026!\u201d<\/p>\n
Sometimes someone will even get out of their seat or chair, step and reach over and give someone a hug and kiss. Tell them \u201cI love you.\u201d Tell them \u201cthis means a lot.\u201d But then it soon goes to the next present. And the next. And the next. Then the next.<\/p>\n
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.<\/p>\n
Then it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n
But not with my 2 \u00bd year-old-grandson Marlowe.<\/p>\n
This Christmas he had a small mountain of gifts. The first was a 5\u201d plastic green Tyrannosaurus Rex. It could have come from the Dollar Store but no matter. He didn\u2019t really know who it was from, but that was no matter either.<\/p>\n
All Marlowe knew was that it was the most wonderful, fun and fantastic of all gifts ever imaginable!<\/p>\n
Any lack of personal gratitude was offset by Marlowe’s perfect and complete enjoyment of this simple piece of wonder<\/a>…<\/p>\n He was thoroughly and perfectly engrossed in the joy of a 5\u201d plastic green Tyrannosaurus Rex who was now – with the help of Marlowe’s inexhaustible imagination – greedily cannibalizing a bowl of sweets, bravely defending himself against attacks from candles and ornaments, and confidently challenging any and all imaginary threats.<\/p>\n Marlowe’s T-Rex held dominion over the Johnson living room coffee table all Christmas morning.<\/p>\n Marlowe was so caught up with the joy and ecstasy of one simple gift, he didn\u2019t seem to need another. The Christmas morning ended with many of Marlowe\u2019s presents still wrapped.<\/p>\n We can learn a lot from Marlowe.<\/p>\n Most of the time we accept gifts. Perhaps we even take the\u00a0time to express thanks. But before we even have time to enjoy one gift we\u2019re off looking for something else. Looking for another present to unwrap.<\/p>\n Never fully benefitting from the wonder of any one thing, we look to unwrap something new.<\/p>\n We should all be more like Marlowe. When a gift comes we should revel in it. Lose ourselves in it. Forget about \u201cwhat\u2019s next\u201d and enjoy \u201cwhat\u2019s there.\u201d<\/p>\n That is the true spirit of Christmas.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We had a wonderful Christmas. Like in many households, we have the common practice of unwrapping one present at a time, then another. Sometimes each unwrapping is punctuated by individualized explanatory gratefulness: \u201cOh this is perfect \u2026 what I\u2019ve always wanted!\u201d \u201cOh how wonderful and beautiful \u2026!\u201d \u201cOh my, you shouldn\u2019t have \u2026!\u201d Sometimes someone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[136],"tags":[21,135],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1400"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1413,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions\/1413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Image:\u00a0Christmas Presents by\u00a0Ravi Shah (CC license 2.o)<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"