{"id":209,"date":"2012-12-23T12:28:37","date_gmt":"2012-12-23T18:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/?p=209"},"modified":"2012-12-23T12:48:38","modified_gmt":"2012-12-23T18:48:38","slug":"what-christmas-means-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/2012\/12\/23\/what-christmas-means-to-me\/","title":{"rendered":"What Christmas Means to Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Christmas, it&#8217;s a time of pretty lights, pretty packages, family get togethers ,Hallmark movies, claymation movies and midnight church services. It&#8217;s children looking for Santa, his elves and flying reindeer. It&#8217;s the joy of gift giving and receiving. I must not forget, the cool Christmas windows in department stores. Even famous parades. The list goes on.  <\/p>\n<p>As a child I looked forward to Santa and gifts. In my teen to young adulthood, just the gift. When I became a parent, it meant giving my children the best memories of the Christmas season. Today as my children get older, and my age climbs, Christmas has changed.  I&#8217;m actually seeing Christmas in a new way. Christmas really does have magic and miracles. I never thought I would see the day, when my Christmas list was more about giving than receiving. <\/p>\n<p> We forget that Christmas, at least to me, means the promise from God that all my needs will be met. It&#8217;s the wake up call, to let go of the past, focus on today and leave the future in Gods hands.  Before my diagnosis of depression, I had doubts that Christmas would be enjoyable. After all money&#8217;s tight, my family is 189 miles away, I work a lot of hours to make ends meet. Would there be a tree? Would there be gifts? What kind of food would we have? <\/p>\n<p>Well my questions where answered. In my old life, I had three trees. When we moved I had to put one in storage, and get ride of one. Yet my four foot tree remained here, which now stands with ornaments and lights a glow. There a gifts under the tree, food in the freezer and my family is driving 189 miles to spend the day with me on Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>Once again my needs were met. Christmas really isn&#8217;t about the gifts or trees. It&#8217;s Gods true love and his gifts for all of us, should we accept them.   May God continue to bless you and your friends and family. I know God will continue to love and provide for me and my loved ones. Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christmas, it&#8217;s a time of pretty lights, pretty packages, family get togethers ,Hallmark movies, claymation movies and midnight church services. It&#8217;s children looking for Santa, his elves and flying reindeer. It&#8217;s the joy of gift giving and receiving. I must &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/2012\/12\/23\/what-christmas-means-to-me\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2m8F1-3n","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1596,"url":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/2013\/12\/01\/unleash-the-beast\/","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":0},"title":"Unleash the Beast","author":"Kris Dill","date":"December 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Unleash the Beast...... Ah the holiday's. How exciting yet frustrating it can be to find that perfect gift, for that special person in your life. You hunt, forge, and gather until Christmas day, when you can present these lovely gifts to its intended. How we wait and prepare for that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Faith from the Average Person&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Faith from the Average Person","link":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/category\/faith\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1604,"url":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/2014\/01\/06\/welcome-2014\/","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":1},"title":"Welcome 2014","author":"Kris Dill","date":"January 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy New Year! Yes I realize that we have been in the new year for the last six days, but I didn't know what to say until now. I like many others have experienced good and bad in 2013. 2011, didn't end well for me and 2012 wasn't looking promising\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/2014\/01\/06\/welcome-2014\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":216,"url":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/2013\/01\/01\/a-year-at-a-glance\/","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":2},"title":"A Year At A Glance.","author":"Kris Dill","date":"January 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy New Year! 2013 has arrived and the predications of the world ending in 2012 was once again wrong. How do you like R.E.M.'s song now? \" It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine!\" 2012 for me started with challenges and thoughts of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Faith from the Average Person&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Faith from the Average Person","link":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/category\/faith\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1776,"url":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/2016\/09\/09\/september-11-2001\/","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":3},"title":"September 11, 2001","author":"Kris Dill","date":"September 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 In 2001 I lived in Carol Stream, Illinois.\u00a0 My son was 8, my daughter was 5.\u00a0 I ran a home day care.\u00a0 At the time I had a couple of kids who attended school with mine, and a few that were under the age of 3. We lived\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Faith from the Average Person&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Faith from the Average Person","link":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/category\/faith\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 11: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY - NO COMMERCIAL SALES) Firefighters raise a U.S. flag at the site of the World Trade Center after two hijacked commercial airliners were flown into the buildings September 11, 2001 in New York.  (Photo by 2001 The Record (Bergen Co. NJ)\/Getty Images)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/911-204x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1568,"url":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/2013\/04\/24\/life\/","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":4},"title":"Life","author":"Kris Dill","date":"April 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"On my birthday weekend, I spent my time traveling. I drove from Iowa, to Illinois, to Minnesota. Of course back to Illinois and finally home to Iowa. Why? Well you see my 73 year old mother lost her true best friend in the summer lat year. She died of cancer.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Faith from the Average Person&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Faith from the Average Person","link":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/category\/faith\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":232,"url":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/2013\/02\/12\/faithlent\/","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":5},"title":"Faith\/Lent","author":"Kris Dill","date":"February 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Disclaimer:auto post to Facebook. Well my journey is to begin soon. To quote a \"almost 14\" year old \"you lived without Facebook before right? I think you'll live through this!\" I'm actually surprised at some of the reactions I did receive. Many we're very concerned. I must admit, that after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Faith from the Average Person&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Faith from the Average Person","link":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/category\/faith\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214,"href":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions\/214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familydill.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}