decorating for Christmas at our house

I love Christmas. I love to decorate and be with family. I love to give presents and feel a little wierd getting gifts. Weird huh? Anyway the pics are us having fun decorating our tree. We have been talking about what traditions we want to have with our kids as they grow up. This year we bought Addy one gift, an ornament, something she will keep forever. We decided that for our children we will fill thier stockings, give them one gift, and have one family gift. The rest of the family can be in charge of spoiling them. I want them to learn from us the real meaning of Christmas. Kris is going to read the story of Jesus' birth and we will let the kids buy gifts for families thru an Angel tree.

I think what brought all the presents talk was money and what are we teaching our children. I have a friend that is struggling right now with money and they really couldn't afford to buy gifts but felt like they had too. We talked about how the family would understand and wouldn't want them to go in debt for a present. If only the grandparents would have known that they can't afford baby food right now. But I degress. I understand how they are feeling, the last four years have been a little stressful after Christmas for us, trying to budget after buying all those gifts for everyone (roughfully 16 people), this is the first year that we aren't feeling that as bad, better planning on our part (shopping for almost everything the day after Thanksgiving), hardly any eating out, along with as little groceries as possible, and not spending what we wanted to spend, keeping it at bay. It helps that we don't get each other gifts too. We tried that one year and realized that we couldn't afford it, so we chose a few to keep, showed each other what we bought (it's the thought that counts right?) and then took back all the presents. Since then Kris has written me poems or made me cards, things that I will cherish always. This year we got Addy, the best gift.

So what has all my rambling been about. Having children change everything. It changes how you see everything and hopefully makes you a better person.

Anyway it's late I'm going to bed!