Wonderful Christmastime

Merry Christmas.  I have to admit that I wasn't feeling the Christmas spirit earlier this month.  But you just can't help but getting into it when you have a four year old who gets so excited over the littlest things.  He loves this season.  He has been asking to set up the tree since Halloween.  Family traditions says we set it up the day after Thanksgiving.  I was not feeling it this year.  After cooking all day the day before, the last thing I wanted to do was to climb over all of the junk in the storage room to drag out the Christmas decorations.  And set the tree up and put the lights on myself. Everyone is willing to put on their own ornaments but no one ever wants to help with the lights. Of course this meant a trip to walmart to get more lights. It happens every year.  But the look on little man's face when he saw the tree up was priceless.
Carmen did a report for school this year about the history of Christmas and Christmas Symbols.  Let's just say that it did not help at all with getting into the Christmas spirit.  We say that Christ is the reason for the season, but that was definitely not true in the beginning.  And the meaning and history behind some of the Christmas symbols revealed to me that I need to have a "girl" talk with my daughter.  I will never see the Christmas tree or holly the same way again.
Anyway, I decided not to stress with Christmas cards this year. And I did very limited baking (tight budget this year).  A wise decision for a more relaxing season.  Shopping was quick and mostly painless, with the exception of a banking error that led to an overdraft fee or two, but all is good now.  Today is Christmas eve.  The boys will go on their annual Christmas Eve target shooting thing (yep, we must be rednecks) and then we will venture over to grandma's house for the evening. I am really looking forward to giving the kids their gifts tomorrow. We typically only get them one gift each. We started that tradition a few years ago after J lost his job and we didn't have a choice, but we have enjoyed taking the focus off of buying and putting it more on the reason for the season so we never went back to a sack full of gifts like we used to give each of them.  They do give each other something from the heart as well, so they are actually getting more than one thing.  After spending a few days at gift wrap outreach I am amazed at the amount of money people spend on Christmas.  I am not opposed to giving. I just don't think you should have to take out a loan to do it.
Several families close to us are celebrating this year under a cloud of loss.  I have never lost anyone that close to me so I can't imagine how hard it must be to go through the holiday missing your loved one.  I pray for peace and comfort for those families.  Blessings to all of you this Christmas.