{"id":3689,"date":"2019-05-03T07:57:56","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T11:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forglorysake.com\/?p=3689"},"modified":"2020-09-21T17:39:29","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T21:39:29","slug":"no-more-stuff-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/03\/no-more-stuff-please\/","title":{"rendered":"No more stuff, please"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The older David and I get, the fewer <em>things<\/em> we want. We stopped giving each other gifts (birthday, anniversary, Christmas) more than 10 years ago. Instead we enjoy <em>experiences<\/em> -like travel!<\/p>\n<p>We asked our children in 2008 if they would consider <em>giv<\/em>ing<em> (to others) instead of receiv<\/em>ing that Christmas. At 6,8,10,12,&amp; 14, they actually tried it! That lead to a complete overhaul from piles of presents. Now we play games each holiday like <em>White Elephant<\/em> and <em>Dirty Santa,<\/em>\u00a0that include money prizes, treats and gift cards for silly competitions.<\/p>\n<p>The phase out of presents also came with a promised summer beach trip. A tradition my parents held, like their parents. We&#8217;ve done our best to keep it going even when our growing number\u00a0had to share tight quarters. Whatever it takes to play in the waves and chase crabs on the beach.<\/p>\n<p>Memories of experiences seem to last a lot longer than gifts that grow old and need replacing. Toys, clothing, nic-nacs&#8230; nothing beats a big group game where we laugh so hard you can&#8217;t breathe, or everyone standing in the kitchen eating fresh batches of David&#8217;s fried catfish &amp; mushrooms, until the pies come out of the oven.\u00a0Even a long drive for all of us to go and stay with relatives is better than any new purse! &#x2764;&#xfe0f;<\/p>\n<p>Togetherness has become our constant goal. And it&#8217;s been a win, win in keeping us connected.\u00a0That&#8217;s about all I want more of: this family and maybe a little ocean time.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3695\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forglorysake.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/img_6045.jpg?resize=640%2C693&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"693\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forglorysake.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/img_6045.jpg?w=750&amp;ssl=1 750w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forglorysake.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/img_6045.jpg?resize=277%2C300&amp;ssl=1 277w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The older David and I get, the fewer things we want. We stopped giving each other gifts (birthday, anniversary, Christmas) more than 10 years ago. Instead we enjoy experiences -like travel! We asked our children in 2008 if they would &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/03\/no-more-stuff-please\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"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":[3,1420,5,8],"tags":[136,972,971,634,833],"class_list":["post-3689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children","category-devotional","category-marriage","category-practical-life","tag-christmas","tag-experiences","tag-fun","tag-presents","tag-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paUt4s-Xv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3689"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6261,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3689\/revisions\/6261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}