Happy New Year!

From the Abraham Family to all our friends and family...have a blessed New Year. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we enter a new, exciting and surely a challenging year.

Holiday Economy

I came across an article that detailed the spending habits of Americans and thought about sharing with you, just in case you were interested.

For the past 10 years (1997 to 2007) holiday retail sales have gone from about $388 Billion in 1997 to $474.5 Billion in 2007.

In 2007, the average consumer planned to spend more that $800 on holiday related shopping and more than $100 on themselves. I thought the breakdown was interesting:

• $469.14 on family
• $94.69 on candy and food
• $90.13 on friends
• $49.76 on decorations
• $37.45 on acquaintances (teachers, clergy, babysitters)
• $32.21 on greeting cards and postage
• $22.79 on co-workers
• $20.53 on flowers

For us, as a family, we have allotted a certain amount of money to gift-giving each year. Our credit union makes saving for the holidays a little easier by allowing us to set up a "holiday fund account" where we can deposit a certain amount of money from each paycheck. In November, we can withdraw that balance and use it for Christmas gifts.

My question to you all: how do you save for Christmas? Do you save a certain amount of money each month in anticipation? Do you hope for a year-end bonus to pay off the debt you incur from using credit cards? Do you not buy Christmas gifts?

More interesting tid-bits:

• The busiest shopping period of the year is between 12/17 and 12/23...not Black Friday or Cyber Monday
• In November and December of 2007, consumers accumulated $12.8 Billion in NEW debt...that's 16% of the total debt accumulated that year...1/3 of the consumers were still paying off the debt from the 2006 holiday season!

Lastly, now that Christmas is upon us I am continually reminding myself that its not about the hustle and bustle of shopping or even spending time with family and friends. There are implicit joys of the holiday season and those should not be lost during all the craziness: Watching my daughter's eyes light up right along with all the Christmas lights and decorations...Her pure excitement of simply shoveling snow with me and building a snowman was awesome...Helping Susan and I wrap gifts and bake cookies. She is my model for pure joy and happiness.

Christmas should not be about how much you can spend or finding just the right gift for someone. Christmas is about Jesus being sent to earth from heaven to bring light to a dark world. It's about our God sending his only Son to save us from His coming wrath for our sins. It's about sharing with co-workers, family and friends the true meaning of why we have this holiday season. To me, it's about the joy of Christ, love of Christ and peace of Christ.

Hope you all have a blessed Christmas...

Update...

Its been a long time (November 7th, in fact) since I've posted anything to this blog. For those of you waiting with baited breath, sorry. You can breathe easier now. For those who haven't been waiting, well, surprise...here's an update!

Susan and I have had a very eventful week and are looking forward to an even more exciting weekend! Let's do a quick recap:

Last Saturday - we took Isabelle downtown with Sibi, Ninit and Alexis and experienced the windows on State Street and had a nice lunch downtown at Macy's. Even though it was freezing, the girls had a blast and loved the chance to spend time together.

1. Sunday - We were immensely challenged the previous week to be more obedient to God and took a couple of huge steps of obedience. For several years we had both been wanting to take this step, but always have found a way to talk ourselves out of it. Well finally the opportunity presented itself and we took the plunge. Give me a call or send us a note to get more details, if you're interested.

2. Monday - I woke up and went to work. After work I had a "blindspot check" with a friend. We practically have known each other since 2nd grade, and have shared so many experiences together. The interesting part for both of us is that we even though we know so much about each others' lives, we rarely tried to dig deeper into our relationship. This was more a symptom of my personality. After hearing a message at church (by Pastor James MacDonald), we both were interested in checking our lives and sought out a way to find the blindspots in our lives. We dig deep about our roles as leaders in our families, workplaces and really try to help each other see the blindspot.

3. Tuesday - as a result of our blindspot check, I woke up earlier than usual and spent some time in the Word. I believe as a direct result, I had a great (!) day at work. Even though I've known that spending good, quality time with the Lord everyday was essential, I was really good at not focusing on that aspect. I'm praying that I can create a persisent and consistent time in the Word and experience more great days at work. Also, I went Christmas shopping with Susan and got a gift for myself...the Dark Knight DVD!!

4. Wednesdsay - I woke up...went to work...and came home...it snowed here in Chicago, so Isabelle, Susan and I went outside and built our first snowman as a family. Here's a picture:


5. Thursday - I woke...went to work...and went to the Bears-Saints game!!! What a game! Daniel Manning ran back the opening kickoff for a touchdown, Mike Brown had an interception, the Bears kicked a game-tying field goal with 0:00 seconds left, and then won in overtime with a field goal. The guys I went with had a blast and we got to know the people that were sitting around us. To go to a game with friends is a great time, but to make friends and create a "system" during the game was just as fun. The people that were sitting in front of us were really cool people. For example, when the Saints were on offense and they faced 3rd downs, typically the fans get on their feet and make as much noise as possible. Well, for some reason the Bears D wasn't stopping the Saints, so "Joe" and I decided to sit during the next 3rd down. Lo and behold! The Bears forced a 3 and out! We sat the next time the Saints were facing 3rd down...and again, it worked. Soon people around us saw this and were into our "system" too. It was a cool study in understanding human interaction.

6. Friday - woke up with no voice and toes that were still thawing out. Went to work, came home and got to play with Izzy. Susan spent most of the day baking a cake and cupcakes for Izzy's birthday party. What a great wife...she cares so much about us in ways that I often take for granted. Ever since we've moved back to Chicago, I have marveled at the way she has taken to the transition. Even though I know she works hard and has to balance so much, she rarely, if ever, seems flustered. She's a wonderful woman and I'm proud of her beyond words can express.

7. Saturday - tomorrow morning. God willing we wake up and drive back to Bloomington for the day. Most importantly, it's Izzy's 3rd birthday! The reason we are driving to Bloomington is because I get to take part in the commencement at ISU for my MBA. After almost 3 years, I get to celebrate with my cohort and family for this step in our lives.

8. Sunday - I'll have pictures and a recap of Izzy's party next week.

Thanks for reading this long post. This past week has truly been one of the most eventful and "memory creating" weeks in our lives...just thought I would share it with the 2 or 3 of you that are reading.

re>rooting is pretty cool.