O the joy of selfless giving; O the creativity of homemade surprises! O the excitement of the Christmas Eve gift exchange!

Despite Donald’s distant locality in Taiwan, he was able to participate in the gift exchange by sending Michael a unique gift in the mail: a few authentically Taiwanese items including a pair of chopsticks!

Michael’s gift was presented to David: a handy pencil and eraser holder of original design skillfully crafted with artistic ingenuity from the branch of a maple.

David’s gift was for Donald, covertly sent to him earlier and unannounced until that night. He had compiled instructions for over 8 family-night games for Donald to play with the ministry team in Taiwan.

Next came Jonathan’s gift for Robert: an extraordinary and exceedingly innovative boardgame of Staddonopoly complete with custom-made properties and personalized chance and community chest cards!

Robert expounded on Daniel’s keen interest for refined classical music by assembling on CD a collection of classical masterpieces from the famed Van Cliburn 12th International piano competition. 

Completely unaware of the gift Robert was making for him, Daniel had created a very similar gift for Esther focused more from an educational standpoint. He had meticulously compiled three classical music CD’s with a 7 page booklet designed to familiarize the listener with the composers of various music periods and their distinctive styles.

Esther, knowing James’ desire to learn the art of meal preparation in Chicago, gave him some practical recipes and bags of pre-made mixes. Very practical!

The final gift of the evening was a booklet James gave Jonathan of tips and techniques to assist him in his videography interests!

The love that went into each gift was a reminder of the great love that motivated God to send to us the greatest gift of all: Jesus Christ.