Christmas/Yule will be different this year…

by | Oct 25, 2008 | Holidays

Five years of Christmas together under our belt.  The first year was good – big, lots of presents for all.  After that our money troubles really started to form.  Two jobs still didn’t allot too much for Christmas.  It went down to buying for Brandon, and being happy with that.  When Riley and then Angel were born, we satisfied ourselves with a few small presents for them since they wouldn’t remember and attempting to make Brandon’s Christmas’s big. 

Last year we managed to pull together the money for a big Christmas.  Piles of presents under the tree, wrapping paper everywhere.  Then getting together with teh family and MORE presents there.

This year we could do that again if we wanted to.  We could spend hundreds of dollars and put piles of presents under the tree – toys that would be destroyed by el-distructo (Angel), toys that would be ignored and forgotten like every other toy in the house.  Boxes of clothes that would get an “oh” from Brandon and thrown aside.

But we’ve talked about it…and we don’t want to do it.  We’re going to let Brandon know that our plan for the holiday this year is this:

1. The kids will each get one ‘big’ gift this year.  For the girls it will be something smaller, for Brandon it will be one big gift.  He can give us some options and we’ll figure it out.

2. Brandon will pick a charity and we’ll donate $50-100 (we haven’t set the amt yet) to that charity in his name.

3. Handmade gifts will be encouraged…even if it’s something silly.

4. Archie and I will get gifts for each other this year – but we’ll have a spending limit of $20 and it should be meaningful.

5.  We will find something charitable to do for the family.

It just suddenly hit me the other day that just because we HAVE the money doesn’t mean we need to SPEND it…not on a bunch of stuff that will go by the wayside or get torn up.  If we put some of our money and time to things and people that need it we’d appreciate it more in the end. 

Now I just have to get some motivation inside of me to have the patience to sit down with the kids and do crafts with Christmas in mind…and use THOSE to decorate my house instead of spending tons of money on decorations from the store.

I hate Halloween

by | Oct 1, 2008 | Holidays

My mother hated Halloween, and I guess she passed it on to me.

Walking around to stranger’s houses and begging for food.  Bratty teenagers creating havoc performing more tricks than treats.  The cost/hassle of costumes, pumpkins. 

I was predestined to dislike it. 

Then during high school my dad’s employee vehicle was egged.  The neighborhood we lived in was filled with the rich, snobby kid set…and it sort of sealed Halloween’s fate for me.

I hated it.

As Brandon has gotten older, my dislike grew.  I leave my house dark, not like our neighborhood gets many hits (it’s sort of off the beaten path) anyway.  I have Archie take Brandon out, the girls don’t go (Riley went her first year, Angel has never gone).  I cringe and blah my way through the day.

So why am I finding myself getting excited now?  Planning on going to the pumpkin patch for the harvest festival/corn maze?  Getting ideas for pumpkins that don’t necessarily involve carving?  Recipes for pumpkin-involved dishes?  Thinking of cheap, easy costumes to MAKE for the girls?  Why do I have visions of them dressed as a princess and an angel? 

Is it possible that…I’m starting to…LIKE Halloween?  Or at least get interested in it? 

Or am I just facing serious mental illness?  Because I’m also already making plans to expand our Christmas decorations, too…which I’ve always done (planned), but never followed through on…