I know many of you have just packed the Christmas stuff away but it's time to start planning for Christmas 2010. Trust me, you'll thank me in about 330 days from now.
First think of what you overheard and saw this Christmas. Who got the start of a collection this year? Who got a perfect gift that you can add to next Christmas? Who really enjoyed the board game at the big family get together and would like to own it, too? It's time to make notes. No, you won't remember later, so write it down in your control journal if you're a Fly Lady fan. Were there gift ideas you had but didn't get to fulfill? You now have an entire year to finish that project or hunt down that hard to find gift.
Make a plan. You know there are certain people you'll buy for every single year. Start buying for them now. If you only bought one gift a month, think how far ahead you'll be by Thanksgiving. I keep a gift idea list on my computer and recently I've started keeping track of gifts on my amazon.com account. Keep it in a place the recipients won't find it but where you won't lose it!
Regarding all that Christmas stuff you buy each year, this is the time of year to get it! Cards, paper goods, wrapping supplies, lights, ornaments and so on are super cheap right now. Shane and I bought our ornaments for next year's ornament exchange along with several Christmas themed gifts tonight-at 75% off. Last year I bought icecicle lights for $1.50 a box after Christmas. Christmas trees are also a steal right now. One word of caution-learn what you really need. Don't buy things you don't need just because they are on sale! That defeats the purpose of saving money!
Put it away wisely. I have a drawer full of gifts that I buy all year long. When I buy Christmas decor, I put it with my Christmas supplies, not in some closet where I won't find it until the spring after I need it. I have started keeping a small Christmas box in our bedroom for those random Christmas items I missed when I put it all away, as well as anything else Christmas themed that might come in during the year. I keep our Santa hats in it since we often need them for pictures before the decorations come out (this probably doesn't apply to you unless you are on the pregnancy center board of directors like Shane, where they usually take their Christmas card picture in November, but maybe there's something you often need before the rest of the stuff comes out, like Advent candles...).
Christmas 2010 really will be here before we know it, so spend a little time now preparing for it and you will thank me in November-it's just around the corner!
Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Sunday, December 13, 2009
New Traditions
I grew up in a home overflowing with Christmas cheer. My mom decorated with her favorite Santas, played Christmas music as soon as the days grew crisp-well, but not around my dad who wouldn't stand it that early! She dressed up a little on Christmas Day as she served traditional foods on her nice dishes.
Shane and I have carried on some of those traditions and of course have added our own. I'll share a couple of ours to encourage you to see how you add to yours, should you desire to enrich your holidays even more. Of course the bottom line is to savor the holidays, not to feel any pressure to add undo stress to your days.
We'll start with Thanksgiving. Shane and I would love to host dinner but are still too young I suppose! Shane suggested that next year we plan a special breakfast with our girls before we set off to our parents homes. I hope we remember this next year!
For the last few years, we've had a Cousin's Christmas party. Most of us cousins have lived in the same town growing up so we have a lot of shared memories of our childhood. As adults, we don't spend enough time together, often only seeing each other at Easter and Christmas. Now we have a private party of our own in one of our homes. We focus on fellowship with good finger foods and an spirited ornament exchange game. It's a favorite evening of the season for all of us!
As far as gifts go, we give the girls three gifts each under the tree, just as Jesus was given three gifts. They also get stocking gifts. To keep the girls from shaking and trying to peek, each girl gets a new name for a few weeks. The trick is, they don't know who is who! This year under the tree there are gifts for Sugar Cookie, Pumpkin Pie, Peanut Brittle, Candy Cane, and Ginger Bread. On Christmas morning, each girl will find a slip of paper in her stocking telling her who she is. It's so much fun hearing the girls analyze for weeks about who is who-especially when I don't put much thought into the names-it's pretty random, actually!
Oh, and the girls do get a big gift, but not from Santa. We downplay Santa here, and the big gift is a Daddy Gift. Why does the man in red get all the credit?
Remember to slow down and enjoy your traditions-if they stress you out, consider tweaking them or even replacing them with simpler ones.
Just for fun, here's some pictures from last night's cousin's party (stolen from my sister in law's FB page!-thanks Mary!):
Jaika hamming it up with her BFF 2nd cousin Adri watching on!
Jaika, being cute before she morphs back into the wild child!
Shane and I have carried on some of those traditions and of course have added our own. I'll share a couple of ours to encourage you to see how you add to yours, should you desire to enrich your holidays even more. Of course the bottom line is to savor the holidays, not to feel any pressure to add undo stress to your days.
We'll start with Thanksgiving. Shane and I would love to host dinner but are still too young I suppose! Shane suggested that next year we plan a special breakfast with our girls before we set off to our parents homes. I hope we remember this next year!
For the last few years, we've had a Cousin's Christmas party. Most of us cousins have lived in the same town growing up so we have a lot of shared memories of our childhood. As adults, we don't spend enough time together, often only seeing each other at Easter and Christmas. Now we have a private party of our own in one of our homes. We focus on fellowship with good finger foods and an spirited ornament exchange game. It's a favorite evening of the season for all of us!
As far as gifts go, we give the girls three gifts each under the tree, just as Jesus was given three gifts. They also get stocking gifts. To keep the girls from shaking and trying to peek, each girl gets a new name for a few weeks. The trick is, they don't know who is who! This year under the tree there are gifts for Sugar Cookie, Pumpkin Pie, Peanut Brittle, Candy Cane, and Ginger Bread. On Christmas morning, each girl will find a slip of paper in her stocking telling her who she is. It's so much fun hearing the girls analyze for weeks about who is who-especially when I don't put much thought into the names-it's pretty random, actually!
Oh, and the girls do get a big gift, but not from Santa. We downplay Santa here, and the big gift is a Daddy Gift. Why does the man in red get all the credit?
Remember to slow down and enjoy your traditions-if they stress you out, consider tweaking them or even replacing them with simpler ones.
Just for fun, here's some pictures from last night's cousin's party (stolen from my sister in law's FB page!-thanks Mary!):
Two sisters with their second cousin posing in front of the tree right where my cousins & I posed each year!
Miss Audrey in all her cuteness!
Aunt Mary and Audrey
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Family Favorite
When I was a young bride and trying to make my niche in the family feasts, I asked Shane what I should bring to Christmas dinner. We paged through some recipes I'd collected and he picked out Cape Cod Cranberry Velvet Pie. I would have never picked it myself, I mean look at it's name! It's huge! And Cape Cod? What does that have to do with pie?
Regardless, I made it and it's become a staple at our holiday family gatherings. It's so easy and it's light, cool & creamy. It goes in the freezer and is similar to a cheese cake. It's so easy to make. Here's the recipe. Let me know if you try it-it's a crowd pleaser!
1 shortbread pie crust (I've used graham when my store didn't carry shortbread)
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 c whipping cream
1/4 c sugar
1/2 t vanilla extract
16 oz can cranberry sauce (you can use whole berry, leaving garnish on top or jellied which makes a more blended pie-either is great).
In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. In a small mixing bowl, beat whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla until soft peaks form. Gradually add to cream cheese, beating until smooth and creamy. Set aside a few cranberries from sauce if using whole berry sauce. Fold remaining sauce into whipped mixture (you can beat it in if using regular jellied sauce). Spoon into pie crust. Freeze 4 hours or until firm. Garnish with reserved berries. Remove from freezer 15 minutes before serving so it's soft enough to cut. Don't leave it out too long, it'll melt. :)
Oh, and by the way I renamed it. It's now just called Cranberry Pie or that pie you always make.
Regardless, I made it and it's become a staple at our holiday family gatherings. It's so easy and it's light, cool & creamy. It goes in the freezer and is similar to a cheese cake. It's so easy to make. Here's the recipe. Let me know if you try it-it's a crowd pleaser!
1 shortbread pie crust (I've used graham when my store didn't carry shortbread)
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 c whipping cream
1/4 c sugar
1/2 t vanilla extract
16 oz can cranberry sauce (you can use whole berry, leaving garnish on top or jellied which makes a more blended pie-either is great).
In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. In a small mixing bowl, beat whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla until soft peaks form. Gradually add to cream cheese, beating until smooth and creamy. Set aside a few cranberries from sauce if using whole berry sauce. Fold remaining sauce into whipped mixture (you can beat it in if using regular jellied sauce). Spoon into pie crust. Freeze 4 hours or until firm. Garnish with reserved berries. Remove from freezer 15 minutes before serving so it's soft enough to cut. Don't leave it out too long, it'll melt. :)
Oh, and by the way I renamed it. It's now just called Cranberry Pie or that pie you always make.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
How we saved some dough this Christmas
Given that Shane was off work 3 weeks with Audrey's birth and the complications that followed (most of this was paid leave, but his security work is contract labor, so there is no sick/vacation time), we needed to tighten our thrift store belts this year. Here's how we did it:
I wasn't the hostess with the mostest at our two little Christmas parties we held in our home. I held back on making extra dishes and playing games that required prizes.
We were upfront about our need to trim the list down. We went straight up and straight down the family tree as far as gift giving was concerned. That means we skipped a lot of our siblings, cousins and aunts/uncles. In early December I talked to my brothers and we all agreed, with much relief, not to buy for each other. We only bought for a small handful of friends and except for a batch of Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve for the jailers, we skipped the coworker gifts for Shane.
We skipped a lot of treats for the house. We didn't buy new lights (although I did buy $5 worth of poinsettias that I promptly froze to death-they live on the North Pole in Frosty, why not in a Texas cold snap?). We kept our edible treats simple-hot chocolate, homemade sugar cookies, homemade cheese ball, and one try at a family recipe for date loaf.
We downsized our Christmas card list. Few locals got the 8 cent picture card. We did a letter here on the blog.
I bought ONE roll of gift wrap. I used it on all our gifts, which looked nice under the tree. Since I used most of it, I'll use a different roll next year (already bought on clearance). I think I like this better than keeping several rolls around for years (they never go away and I get so sick of the same smiling Santa with a soft drink).
As always, we kept our gifts simple and buy on sale as often as we can. I shop online anyway, but I think this saves money since I'm not using gas to drive out of town, not eating out, and not running into much else I just have to have.
I am starting this year (as I always plan to, but always fail to) to plan out gifts for next year. I bought a few things heavily discounted for gift giving during the year or Christmas. If I buy just one thing a month, I'll have accomplished much by next Christmas. (Just a note: I've realized that buying odds & ends without a person in mind as a recipient almost always backfires. For now on, if I can't know who I'll give it to, I'm not buying it, even if it's 75% off. Otherwise, it just sits in my gift drawer.)
I know we aren't the only ones feeling the crunch, so how did you keep those December costs down? If you didn't have this issue, let me just give you my address so you can mail me a benevolent check :)
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Images of the Season
Before Christmas is too far behind us, I want to share some great pictures, or rather some decent pictures of some great memories.
Bethany (bottom row 3rd from the right) and Hope (blondie just a little to the right of center) in our church's living Christmas tree.
Some of the lights in Marshall, Texas. We went for a LONG drive over to Marshall (in East Texas) to see the lights and eat dinner with Shane's brother Scott.
Our local Christmas parade with three avid fans (it's all of six minutes long and mostly filled with ambulances and fire trucks).
A tired 2 year old...Christmas is BIG when you're 2!
Shane & my cousin Jamie at our annual Cousin's Christmas party.
Audrey in her Christmas dress the Sunday before Christmas. On second thought, she has about four Christmas outfits with all the hand-me-downs! She was decked out each Sunday of December.
Bethany (bottom row 3rd from the right) and Hope (blondie just a little to the right of center) in our church's living Christmas tree.
Some of the lights in Marshall, Texas. We went for a LONG drive over to Marshall (in East Texas) to see the lights and eat dinner with Shane's brother Scott.
Our local Christmas parade with three avid fans (it's all of six minutes long and mostly filled with ambulances and fire trucks).
A tired 2 year old...Christmas is BIG when you're 2!
Shane & my cousin Jamie at our annual Cousin's Christmas party.
Audrey in her Christmas dress the Sunday before Christmas. On second thought, she has about four Christmas outfits with all the hand-me-downs! She was decked out each Sunday of December.
My big girls...can you see the anticipation on Hope's face?!
The real, live Mrs. Potato Head is in the house!
Think she's getting enough milk? Check out those cheeks and the double chin! Just a side note of great importance-she has my brown eyes unlike any of my other children! Yay!
One of my favorite moments of Christmas. Jaika especially loves my 89 year old Grandma.
The real, live Mrs. Potato Head is in the house!
Think she's getting enough milk? Check out those cheeks and the double chin! Just a side note of great importance-she has my brown eyes unlike any of my other children! Yay!
One of my favorite moments of Christmas. Jaika especially loves my 89 year old Grandma.Friday, December 26, 2008
My Best Christmas Ever
This Christmas was a little different in several ways. First, Daddy had to work Christmas Eve night so he didn't get home until around 8:45 Christmas morning--way late into the day as far as kids are concerned. I needed a stalling tactic to keep them happy until they could open gifts. We set the table and had a nice sit down breakfast. You know sitting down anywhere other than by the tree is forbidden on most Christmases, lol. The kids did as well as can be expected and I was only asked 42 times when Daddy would be home.
Shane arrived just in the nick of time. He'd just heard about the pilots who send the kids who've lost a parent in the war to Disney World. He was so moved by this reminder of the sacrifices made for our freedom that he decided to lead us in prayer for those kiddos & families who were missing someone Christmas morning. I was touched by his sensitivity.
Okay so we opened, stuffed trash, opened, stuffed trash and opened some more. Everyone only had about 5-6 gifts under our tree, but there are a lot of us, you know!
Off to Mom & Dad's for a short gift exchange then off to my aunt's across town for the Jones Christmas (my family).
This is where the best Christmas ever part comes in-hang with me!
Meet my little brother Scott & sister in law Mary (they're holding my Audrey here):
Mary was diagnosed with colon cancer this year. She & I were in the hospital at the same time (different hospitals)-me having a baby and Mary having her tumor removed. This after months of chemo & radiation treatments to shrink it. She had complications and had to go back in for surgery a few days after her initial surgery. They had to drive back & forth to Dallas, a good ways from our humble little rural town and Scott used all of his paid leave. They were in financial stress, to say the least-especially since Mary hasn't been able to work most of the year.
Meet the gift box:
The family started cooking up a conspiracy to skip the Chinese Christmas this year and instead put the money toward Scott & Mary, without breathing a word to them. Throughout the day, people slipped cash into this innoculous decoration...
Meet one of the crafters:
Each of the kiddos in the entire family brought a homemade item to auction off. Hope is making a bird house, Ashlyn painted note cards with sweet greetings, Bethany painted a purple polka dot picture frame, and cousins made book marks, sculptures, a collage, and even a book! We all thought the items would go for a few bucks a piece, with the point being just to let the kids feel involved but they raised over a hundred dollars!
Scott & Mary didn't know what was going on :)
Then we presented the gift box to them, explaining that they are more important than gifts and we felt they needed the help this year. They were speechless, but not necessarily tearless.
I've never been more proud of our family. We didn't leave the celebration with as many gifts (our Chinese gifts are usually pretty good, especially for the girls-I have aunts that know how to shop!), but with a special memory that exceeds any joy from opening gifts. Scott and Mary left with almost $700 to help pay for medical expenses or whatever else they need.
Be blessed-I know I am today!
PS-Happy 30th Birthday Scott!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Christmas Traditions
Traditions add depth to families, they give a comforting constant.
Many families collect ornaments and enjoy picking out a special one each year. We do this too, but with a little bit of a twist. We choose one ornament to represent the most important event of the year-just one per year for the entire family. I'm glad we started out with just one-can you imagine how expensive it'd be to buy one for each of our family members ;)
I'd like to share our years with you today: The first 13 years of our marriage are chronicled on this wreath. The ornaments start at the top and go clockwise:
Our first year is celebrated by two ornaments that say "Our First Christmas." This was 1995.
1996-Pregnant Kangaroo, I was six months pregnant with Ashlyn.
1997-Ashlyn's first Christmas-a teddy bear on a rocking horse.
1998-We joined Bell Baptist Church, represented by a gold & maroon bell. This church grew us tremendously and the PRC was birthed from there.
1999-The call to start the PRC, symbolized by an ornament with John 3:16 on it.
2000-Millennium Baby ornament for Hope's arrival into this world.
2001-An ornament that represents what touched all of us that year-9/11. This ornament is an American flag heart.
2002-We bought our land in Sunset, which looks a lot like the winter scene in the country on the beautiful tear shaped ornament. I cried when I looked at this one this year, since our land is on the market.
2003-My first Christmas for Bethany.
2004-Shane's tassel from his 2006 graduation from college (we didn't find one that year, so we retrofitted the wreath after he graduated). This was the year Shane was laid off and returned to college.
2005-A gold ball with a Sheriff's office theme, for the year Shane was hired onto the department.
2006-Jaika's first Christmas.
2007-A karate chopping Santa represents the girls' new love for karate and their precious leaders.
2008-Audrey's first Christmas.
I would love to hear about your ornament traditions! Share in the comments:
Thursday, December 11, 2008
From Our Home to Yours...Our Christmas Letter
In order to be a little thriftier this Christmas season, we chose to write our Christmas letter on virtual paper. If you just found this site through the address on our card, thanks for stopping by. I hope you have fun seeing the girls and reading our thoughts and stories. Grab some hot chocolate, read the letter, then browse around the site if you wish. Hope to see you back here soon!
Dear Friends & Family,
At our house, we don't put a lot of emphasis on Santa but if we did, I can predict where our crew might fit in on his Naughty or Nice Lists...
Daddy, of course, would fall on the Nice List. He's been working two jobs all year, so he's too busy to get in trouble! The Sheriff's Department and his security guard job take up plenty of his time-although he sure spends a lot of time with many on the Naughty list :) Daddy got extra points taking good care of Mom and all the girls when Audrey arrived, so he gets a free ticket for the Nice List for the next few years!
Mom, well, she's doomed for the Naughty List. You see, it all started November 5th when she went into labor with Audrey. Mom got all dramatic...or was it Audrey...and they ended up in surgery for an emergency C-section. Mom got so used to the quiet home away from home and room service at the hospital that she decided she needed a few more days of it. She conjured up this plan to have trouble breathing and with excess fluid just so she didn't have to cook or do dishes. Good thing she and Audrey are both healthy now, maybe she can earn her way back to the Nice List next year. She'll have lots of time to work on it since she left her job this Fall to stay home with all the girls.
Ashlyn might want to take a walk on the wild side, but she's a true Nice List girl. She's Mom's right hand. Becoming quite the "tween" she's little girl and young woman all together. This will be her last year as a student in Awana, where she memorizes Bible verses. Next year she plans to be a Leader in Training. She's been working at saving for a horse and will probably have enough to buy one as soon as we move to a house with space for one.
Jumping from one list to the other all year is Hope. Most of the time she is a great helper, especially to her little cousin Adri who spends her weekdays in our home. Hope is an expert diaper changer, baby entertainer and Bible verse memorizer. Like most kids though, Hope flirts with the Naughty list when she stalls on her school work and chores...and bedtime...
Ahh, the soft voice and cute freckles that belong to Miss Bethany keep her far from the Naughty List, even when she begs to play with her large Polly Pocket collection instead of doing her kindergarten work. Bethany still has a strong shy side but is a riot at home. Most of the giggles we share come from something Bethany said.
Jaika-easy as pie: Naughty List! Naughty List and loving it! I'm sure she'd have it no other way! Jaika has caused her parents to put up extra baby safety locks on cabinets they'd never thought reachable by other siblings. Poison Control is on speed dial. Thankfully, Jaika is a lively two year old with a huge smile that goes hand in hand with a great sense of humor.
Audrey Shayne is just five weeks old, so she's hardly had time to cross over to the Naughty List. However, before she was born, she thought it'd be fun to play jump rope with her umbilical cord and she knotted it up. The Lord watched out for her and kept it from getting tight. She's so cuddly, I'm sure Santa won't hold it against her.
So, there you have it, the run down on who gets coal and who gets gifts! One gift we're hoping for soon is our land to sell. We can fulfill some big financial goals with that money, including buying that house for the horse. Well, it will also have more bedrooms and bathrooms for the humans!
Merry Christmas from us! May you always be on the Nice List...of course we all know Who's list we need to be on and it has nothing to do with Santa!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Gifts & Frugality
I was just scanning my Google Reader before getting ready for bed and as I read D's thoughts on being financially skinny during gift-giving times, I thought I'd post on the subject as well.
Not only do we not have the fundage for big parties and lots of gifts, but we don't have the room to house the said gifts. We keep our kids' birthdays simple with family parties and a couple of gifts from us. Sometimes we have a friend or two over, but we still keep it simple. Oh, and we don't do overly practical gifts, but we don't do frivolous stuff either. We try hard to keep all gifts we give meaningful & useful to the receiver.
Christmas is a bigger deal-not that we buy more for our kids, but that it's even more important for me to keep it scaled down. Two years ago I counted up how many people usually give our kids gifts. Then I multiplied that by how many children we had at the time (4) and the total was about 60 gifts. Sixty! All of which have to go in ONE bedroom!
After she picked her jaw off the floor, my mom thankfully responded very well and has worked hard at coming up with gifts the girls like that don't take up much space-their favorite magazine subscriptions, for example. Last year she bought them each a cool beach towels-which they needed, but again they didn't take up much room.
Other family hasn't been so responsive. They have the strong opinion that kids need the thrill of opening lots of gifts, even if the gifts aren't especially needed, age appropriate, or in line with the decor or themes of our home (especially their room). I struggle with this, but I know their hearts are pure...they love our kids and want to bless them. They struggle with our minimalist giving so I guess we're even :)
With 60 gifts pouring in for our kids-more this year since Audrey will get some-what do we buy for our kids? Next to nothing! Aren't we terrible?!
We do some stocking gifts, and about 3 gifts a piece under the tree. The three gifts are of good quality, they are probably something the girls have asked for like books, games, or movies. I also try to do something sentimental. One year I did homemade aprons for each one, sometimes it's matching clothes...and then there's the Daddy Gift-he picks out one great gift, something like what Santa might bring. That's it-which is fine since even the stuff we get them gets lost in the pile of presents from everyone else.
One thing we try not to skimp on is gifts to each other. I know there are different ideas on this topic, but Shane & I have always bought each other gifts. We don't buy ourselves a lot during the year, so we save up those special purchases for Christmas. We still keep it simple, just a few items but with much thought and awareness of what the other one would be blessed by. We see it as a tangible statement of our love for each other displayed in front of our children. We all open gifts one at a time (at our home, not everywhere we go, much to our regret). We savor it and it takes a LONG time to do our 3 or so gifts each. We love it this way! We really want to see if the receiver likes our gift, we tell the story of how we picked it out, simply enjoying the process of loving on each other through gift giving.
So, is that frugal? I don't know...we don't charge our gifts, we try to use cash only. We keep it within a budget and we shop sales. We do homemade gifts when appropriate. We don't buy our little babies much-they don't know!
So, how do you do frugal gifts? Do you throw caution to the wind and do a big Christmas no matter what?
Not only do we not have the fundage for big parties and lots of gifts, but we don't have the room to house the said gifts. We keep our kids' birthdays simple with family parties and a couple of gifts from us. Sometimes we have a friend or two over, but we still keep it simple. Oh, and we don't do overly practical gifts, but we don't do frivolous stuff either. We try hard to keep all gifts we give meaningful & useful to the receiver.
Christmas is a bigger deal-not that we buy more for our kids, but that it's even more important for me to keep it scaled down. Two years ago I counted up how many people usually give our kids gifts. Then I multiplied that by how many children we had at the time (4) and the total was about 60 gifts. Sixty! All of which have to go in ONE bedroom!
After she picked her jaw off the floor, my mom thankfully responded very well and has worked hard at coming up with gifts the girls like that don't take up much space-their favorite magazine subscriptions, for example. Last year she bought them each a cool beach towels-which they needed, but again they didn't take up much room.
Other family hasn't been so responsive. They have the strong opinion that kids need the thrill of opening lots of gifts, even if the gifts aren't especially needed, age appropriate, or in line with the decor or themes of our home (especially their room). I struggle with this, but I know their hearts are pure...they love our kids and want to bless them. They struggle with our minimalist giving so I guess we're even :)
With 60 gifts pouring in for our kids-more this year since Audrey will get some-what do we buy for our kids? Next to nothing! Aren't we terrible?!
We do some stocking gifts, and about 3 gifts a piece under the tree. The three gifts are of good quality, they are probably something the girls have asked for like books, games, or movies. I also try to do something sentimental. One year I did homemade aprons for each one, sometimes it's matching clothes...and then there's the Daddy Gift-he picks out one great gift, something like what Santa might bring. That's it-which is fine since even the stuff we get them gets lost in the pile of presents from everyone else.
One thing we try not to skimp on is gifts to each other. I know there are different ideas on this topic, but Shane & I have always bought each other gifts. We don't buy ourselves a lot during the year, so we save up those special purchases for Christmas. We still keep it simple, just a few items but with much thought and awareness of what the other one would be blessed by. We see it as a tangible statement of our love for each other displayed in front of our children. We all open gifts one at a time (at our home, not everywhere we go, much to our regret). We savor it and it takes a LONG time to do our 3 or so gifts each. We love it this way! We really want to see if the receiver likes our gift, we tell the story of how we picked it out, simply enjoying the process of loving on each other through gift giving.
So, is that frugal? I don't know...we don't charge our gifts, we try to use cash only. We keep it within a budget and we shop sales. We do homemade gifts when appropriate. We don't buy our little babies much-they don't know!
So, how do you do frugal gifts? Do you throw caution to the wind and do a big Christmas no matter what?
Monday, December 24, 2007
Same old song, new words!
It's Christmas Eve morning and as Shane and Ash are half an hour away finishing some shopping and I'm waiting on the flour and yeast to do their thing in this delicious cinnamon roll recipe, I overhear the following:
As Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer plays in the background, I hear Beth say "Like Fenokio" (a combo of my cousin's last name and Pinocchio) after every line. She's heard her sisters sing all those add-on and just ran with her own version. The funniest part is that Hope corrected her after the "and they wouldn't let poor Rudolph play and reindeer games" part. Bethany sings, "like Fenokio" and Hope says with all the seriousness of a reprimanding older sister), "No, like Fenopoly!"
Merry Christmas, no matter how you say it!
As Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer plays in the background, I hear Beth say "Like Fenokio" (a combo of my cousin's last name and Pinocchio) after every line. She's heard her sisters sing all those add-on and just ran with her own version. The funniest part is that Hope corrected her after the "and they wouldn't let poor Rudolph play and reindeer games" part. Bethany sings, "like Fenokio" and Hope says with all the seriousness of a reprimanding older sister), "No, like Fenopoly!"
Merry Christmas, no matter how you say it!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Real Thanksgiving
I'm so proud of our church's children's program. It's SO much more than a program! We have excellent people who pour themselves into the children's lives week after week. Ash's Sunday school class adopted a few families to buy/serve Thanksgiving dinner to. The 3 oldest girls spent yesterday evening preparing mashed potatoes, turkey and dressing (while donned in these great aprons!).
To be quite honest, my holidays with our families often fall short of how I want to celebrate. As a Christian, I have many traditions I'd like to start at the Thanksgiving or Christmas Dinner table, but can't because I'm not the hostess. Instead, we seem to revolve our holidays around football and food only. Of course, these things aren't bad, but when this is all we celebrate, there is nothing there honoring the Lord, and that's my heart.
Serving the poor, however, definitely honors the Lord! May your Thanksgiving be full of the Lord's presence, after all, He's the One who gave us everything we're thankful for!
To be quite honest, my holidays with our families often fall short of how I want to celebrate. As a Christian, I have many traditions I'd like to start at the Thanksgiving or Christmas Dinner table, but can't because I'm not the hostess. Instead, we seem to revolve our holidays around football and food only. Of course, these things aren't bad, but when this is all we celebrate, there is nothing there honoring the Lord, and that's my heart.
Serving the poor, however, definitely honors the Lord! May your Thanksgiving be full of the Lord's presence, after all, He's the One who gave us everything we're thankful for!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Our Trip
We got a late start, but had a great day at Lake Mineral Wells State Park. It was such a beautiful day! We tried Letterboxing and Geocaching for the first time (as a family, we'd geocached with my dad before). It was a lot of fun, but as you can read in the post below, it was a bit of work!
I think we're hooked on geocaching-it was a lot of fun. Letterboxing was fun, too and there's no reason not to combine the two and get outside. Being outside together making memories is what counts-finding a treasure is just icing on the cake.
Oh, and one of the coolest parts was that there were some people there on bikes. They all had matching shirts that read, "5th Annual Halloween Campout". There were a lot of them-a dozen or so just on the bikes, so it must be a big deal for them. I would like to kick our tradition up a notch-make it a full weekend and maybe do some cool shirts and invite a bunch of cool friends and family...
I think we're hooked on geocaching-it was a lot of fun. Letterboxing was fun, too and there's no reason not to combine the two and get outside. Being outside together making memories is what counts-finding a treasure is just icing on the cake.
Oh, and one of the coolest parts was that there were some people there on bikes. They all had matching shirts that read, "5th Annual Halloween Campout". There were a lot of them-a dozen or so just on the bikes, so it must be a big deal for them. I would like to kick our tradition up a notch-make it a full weekend and maybe do some cool shirts and invite a bunch of cool friends and family...
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Annual Family Camping Trip
Okay, so reading the post below, you might think we're cruel and just make our kids sit in the dark on the couch eating raisins while cute goblins ring the door bell. We don't. I promise.
In order to avoid Halloween and to make good memories, we go camping the day our town trick or treats. It simply removes us from the day-out of sight, out of mind kind of thing. Any bad attitudes are quickly left behind when we're outside experiencing God's beauty at a State Park.
We have had attitudes, too. Believe me. A couple of years ago, when we started this traditon, we were at Mineral Wells State Park and our oldest protested most of the day. We cheerfully restated our case and moved on. In a few days, I overheard her telling someone else what a good time we had and that she doesn't want to celebrate Halloween with her kids (someday) either.
Last year was quite an experience! I wish Halloween fell earlier in the month. In Texas, October days are usually stunningly beautiful but the nights get chilly by late October. I was overly optimistic about our ability to handle the cold--with a three month old! It was cold in that tent. We froze. I started to run a fever and froze even more. The only fever meds I had were for the kids. A half a bottle of Children's Tylenol later, my fever broke and I was burning up. Ever hear the phrase "If momma's cold the kids put on a sweater"? Well, when I was frozen, I cuddled little Jay close and piled the covers on us. When I was hot, I was sure she was hot, so I practically uncovered us, leaving her pretty bare! I promised I'd never tent camp again!
This year, we're day camping ;)
In order to avoid Halloween and to make good memories, we go camping the day our town trick or treats. It simply removes us from the day-out of sight, out of mind kind of thing. Any bad attitudes are quickly left behind when we're outside experiencing God's beauty at a State Park.
We have had attitudes, too. Believe me. A couple of years ago, when we started this traditon, we were at Mineral Wells State Park and our oldest protested most of the day. We cheerfully restated our case and moved on. In a few days, I overheard her telling someone else what a good time we had and that she doesn't want to celebrate Halloween with her kids (someday) either.
Last year was quite an experience! I wish Halloween fell earlier in the month. In Texas, October days are usually stunningly beautiful but the nights get chilly by late October. I was overly optimistic about our ability to handle the cold--with a three month old! It was cold in that tent. We froze. I started to run a fever and froze even more. The only fever meds I had were for the kids. A half a bottle of Children's Tylenol later, my fever broke and I was burning up. Ever hear the phrase "If momma's cold the kids put on a sweater"? Well, when I was frozen, I cuddled little Jay close and piled the covers on us. When I was hot, I was sure she was hot, so I practically uncovered us, leaving her pretty bare! I promised I'd never tent camp again!
This year, we're day camping ;)
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Why we don’t do Halloween
First, let me explain-we used to do Halloween in a mild way (no scary costumes, just visiting a few houses) and we have friends who do it and our church kind of does it. We aren’t on any campaign to get people to not do it. I think that for the most part, parents of young children have fun memories of dressing up, using fun glow-in-the-dark sticks, staying up late getting tons of candy. There was always an elderly lady on our trick-or-treat route who’d give out popcorn balls and then there was the house you avoided because they gave out raisins you had to con your brother into trading his starbursts for them.
There are several versions of the origins of Halloween. Here’s one from a Neo-pagan who makes Christians look pretty stupid.
This is not my reason for not celebrating (this is from the link above):
Every year in October, some folks begin shouting that Neopagans must be “stopped” from celebrating Halloween, which they describe as a “Satanic” holiday. Many Christian Fundamentalists say loudly and publicly that we Druids, Witches and other Neo-pagans kidnap children, sacrifice babies, poison or booby trap Halloween treats, drink blood, and hold orgies at Halloween. As W. J. Bethancourt puts it, “These opinions are backed up with some rather unusual and very frightening fantasies masquerading as historical facts.”
My original views that led our family to stop celebrating a few years ago were more from this line of thinking (although now I read this as a little extreme-in the rest of his essay, he tends to put a lot of emphasis on the day of Halloween instead of on the warped behaviors of those in the occult-who are practicing every day of the year, not just on Oct. 31.
Here’s where I am right now (quote from the link immediately above):
It does not have even one single redeeming virtue. It is custom born out of pagan superstition. It is a demon-inspired, devil-glorifying, occult festival. It is an evening holy unto evil, death, and divination. The Scriptures tells us to "Abstain from all appearance of evil." [1Thess. 5:22]
In our current culture obsessed with death (and indeed, with abortion and euthanasia, and the general devaluing of human life, we act on that obsession), I don’t want to participate in a holiday dedicated to at best making light of death and at most glorifying it. I see our culture has made witchcraft into a mild Saturday morning cartoon theme and I'm rebelling against that. Witches and spells and the like are listed as things God hates in His own Word, and I see allowing our kids to "play" with those issues is only flirting with fire.
All other holidays we (our family) seriously celebrate we celebrate for positive reasons. Obviously Easter and Christmas focus on our Savior. Although many people think Thanksgiving is just about cranberries and pumpkin pie and football, our family takes it seriously-as a day to focus on the many blessings God has given us. Even the 4th of July is meaningful to me-I am deeply moved by the sacrifices, both past and present of those who risk—and sometimes give—their lives for our freedom.
So, why would I want to celebrate Halloween? I struggle enough with my weight—I don’t need 4 children’s full plastic jack-o-lanterns taunting me to sneak just one more tootsie roll. I frankly am not a bit interested in the dramatics (I have girls, e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g is dramatic) of choosing and making/buying four costumes. And I will not expose my young children to images that will give them nightmares just for the sake of making childhood memories. There’s nothing left of the day to point to the Lord, so why even bother?
The bottom line for our family is that we feel Halloween glorifies evil. We aren’t into glorifying evil, so we skip Halloween. We do something else instead-I’ll post about that tomorrow!
Does this stir you up? Am I taking too strong a stand? Not enough of one? I'd love to hear comments on either side of the issue-just be nice :)
There are several versions of the origins of Halloween. Here’s one from a Neo-pagan who makes Christians look pretty stupid.
This is not my reason for not celebrating (this is from the link above):
Every year in October, some folks begin shouting that Neopagans must be “stopped” from celebrating Halloween, which they describe as a “Satanic” holiday. Many Christian Fundamentalists say loudly and publicly that we Druids, Witches and other Neo-pagans kidnap children, sacrifice babies, poison or booby trap Halloween treats, drink blood, and hold orgies at Halloween. As W. J. Bethancourt puts it, “These opinions are backed up with some rather unusual and very frightening fantasies masquerading as historical facts.”
My original views that led our family to stop celebrating a few years ago were more from this line of thinking (although now I read this as a little extreme-in the rest of his essay, he tends to put a lot of emphasis on the day of Halloween instead of on the warped behaviors of those in the occult-who are practicing every day of the year, not just on Oct. 31.
Here’s where I am right now (quote from the link immediately above):
It does not have even one single redeeming virtue. It is custom born out of pagan superstition. It is a demon-inspired, devil-glorifying, occult festival. It is an evening holy unto evil, death, and divination. The Scriptures tells us to "Abstain from all appearance of evil." [1Thess. 5:22]
In our current culture obsessed with death (and indeed, with abortion and euthanasia, and the general devaluing of human life, we act on that obsession), I don’t want to participate in a holiday dedicated to at best making light of death and at most glorifying it. I see our culture has made witchcraft into a mild Saturday morning cartoon theme and I'm rebelling against that. Witches and spells and the like are listed as things God hates in His own Word, and I see allowing our kids to "play" with those issues is only flirting with fire.
All other holidays we (our family) seriously celebrate we celebrate for positive reasons. Obviously Easter and Christmas focus on our Savior. Although many people think Thanksgiving is just about cranberries and pumpkin pie and football, our family takes it seriously-as a day to focus on the many blessings God has given us. Even the 4th of July is meaningful to me-I am deeply moved by the sacrifices, both past and present of those who risk—and sometimes give—their lives for our freedom.
So, why would I want to celebrate Halloween? I struggle enough with my weight—I don’t need 4 children’s full plastic jack-o-lanterns taunting me to sneak just one more tootsie roll. I frankly am not a bit interested in the dramatics (I have girls, e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g is dramatic) of choosing and making/buying four costumes. And I will not expose my young children to images that will give them nightmares just for the sake of making childhood memories. There’s nothing left of the day to point to the Lord, so why even bother?
The bottom line for our family is that we feel Halloween glorifies evil. We aren’t into glorifying evil, so we skip Halloween. We do something else instead-I’ll post about that tomorrow!
Does this stir you up? Am I taking too strong a stand? Not enough of one? I'd love to hear comments on either side of the issue-just be nice :)
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