Pre baby, the tree would have been up, the gifts all bought by the end of October, at least two batches of Christmas cookies would have been made, Christmas Vacation would have been watched at least once, and a trip to Dollywood would be in the works.
Post baby and a few weeks after a move half across the state, there is no tree up, no cookies made, hardly any shopping done (because there is a LOT less money post baby), no Christmas Vacation (although I did watch Rudolph), and no trip to Dollywood (but there are planned trips to Two Rivers Mansion and Opryland Hotel)...
Our lives have been turned nearly upside down lately. It's been a rough year for us (and so many others) financially. We have had to swallow a lot of pride and cut back on a lot of things. It's been really hard to see what all of this is about. We've not felt very brave and we definitely don't feel in control. My thoughts tend to turn to all that's going wrong.
It's this time of year though...and particularly this year...when there isn't as much money as there has been...that I think of how lucky we are.
We are all healthy, we're together, we have a place to live, we do have enough money to take care of our needs. I don't care how much I get for Christmas...I don't care if I get anything. We have had to be really creative in how we're going to make this Christmas memorable. It reminds me of my favorite Christmases when I was growing up.
We NEVER had money when I was a kid. We had what we had to have and no more, my parents had to make crazy sacrifices to give us what we needed. I was made fun of on more than one occassion for wearing second-hand consignment store clothes. But despite all of that...somehow my parents pulled together everything they had and did whatever they could to make our Christmas great. I actually remember getting into a fight with a boy named Roger at school when I was in the 3rd grade about whether or not Santa was real. He told me he wasn't and my repsonse was that he had to be because I knew my parents were too poor to be able to do all that they did for us every year...now I know what they had to do and it makes that argument all the more special. We would always get one big thing that we really wanted. We spent a lot of time together decorating (usually with homemade decorations), making cookies, and watching Christmas shows on tv. We would drive around and see the lights and put out our nativity scene and my parents would remind us of why we were celebrating such a beautiful day. Even though I know they had very little, those were the best Christmases. It wasn't about the gifts. It was about getting to spend time together and building those traditions.
Anyway, there will be many more Christmases to spend...we'll have more money...but I want my daughter to know it isn't about the money or the gifts. It's about Christ's birth and being with her family and knowing how important all of that is.
1 comment:
This post is GREAT! I am so with you about Christmas...we all get so wrapped up in buying, buying, buying so the true meaning just gets lost in it all. I commend you on trying to teach Delia about what matters most. Brian and I have decided to keep gift buying for Noah to a minimum because we don't want him getting so into the presents...we may struggle with getting grandparents to adopt the same thing but we'll do our best to teach Noah whats important too. Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season!
Post a Comment