Well another month has come and gone! Can't say it's been the greatest month of 2010 but as always I'll make lemonade if you give me a lemon so I'm drinking up.... a lil cold for it though maybe lemon and my spiked hot cocoa would go together too!
Sue Bee turned 5 on the 15th!! She LOVES her birthday! She has such an awesome spirit and love in her little 5yr old heart! She has looked forward to being 5 I think for 2yrs.....last night I told her your birthday month is almost over! 11 more months and it will be back when you turn 6. She looked up and said "mommy I want to stay 5 FOREVER!" Wouldn't that be the perfect age to stay......
Along with November ending come the holidays....oh how I have a love hate relationship for them!! I HATE HATE HATE Thanksgiving. Too many people spend 335 days out of the year being unthankful- greedy and well pretentious. Then all of a sudden Thanksgiving arrives and they want to proclaim their thankfulness for everything!! SAVE IT!!! Wake up EVERYDAY thankful for what you have been blessed with and appreciate your family instead of the 30 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas!! So needless to say we don't really celebrate Thanksgiving. We teach our kids to be thankful everyday not just the last Thursday of November!! We stay home eat a non traditional meal- watch football- movies whatever and give thanks for our everyday life!!
And now here approaches Christmas! Tis the season to anticipate when the #%&@ will hit the fan!! Why you wonder well because we are horrible people who want to stay in our own home for Christmas. For many years we toted kids from house to house after getting up at the crack of dawn- kids had to leave toys behind- and spend HOURS driving over the river and through the woods kids SCREAMING the entire way!! By the days end we had tired cranky kids- tired and cranky husband and wife- and ALWAYS some other unhappy family member because we didn't eat there, didn't get there early enough, or just plum didn't stay long enough!! SO about 6 yrs ago we decided NO MORE we will invite everyone to our house! You would think this would be a welcome invitation- food- gifts- kids.... unfortunately this always comes with a dose of drama and trust me in the next 25 days at some point $&%^ will hit the fan :) Tis the Season now isn't it!!
So we try to ignore the outside negatives and focus on our kids- our traditions- OUR memories!! The kids always look forward to the Advent calender. This year they each have a day of the week to remove the symbol. Along with removing their day they are to do a good deed for someone. This may be help with someones chore- read a book to lil sis- something to GIVE to someone around them! People often wonder how we do Christmas with this many kids... Keep in mind I'm a planner I've been getting gifts for almost a year- black Friday sales have nothing on the sales I find all year!! But we also try to stay focused on the true meaning of Christmas instead of trying to stimulate the economy. Yes Santa comes to visit we are weird but not THAT weird!! :) (I'm kidding I know many reading this don't do Santa) But Santa is not the main focus of our day or the season. We encourage our kids to think about and think of things we can do for those less fortunate. My FAVORITE part of Christmas is on Christmas Eve when the kids give gifts to each other. The elementary kids "buy" things with points they earn reading and Big C took the $$$ he earned ref'ing and bought everyone something (with NO encouragement from us) Each kid gets excited about seeing the others open what they gave and the lil ones LOVE getting a gift from big bro and sis! It is the perfect example that it is not how much $$$ you spend on a gift its what you put into the gift that matters!! The "magic" of Christmas really only pertains to K baby and Sue Bee this year but the "spirit" of the season grows within our family every year as our older kids are growing up! Many worry about how the material side of Christmas will influence their kids when they grow up. Well a friend who has a girl Big C's age did not allow their kids to believe in Santa they are christians the kids go to private school but they didn't want the Santa therory to influence the season. I thought at the time about doing this but now seeing my older kids values of the season I know Santa does not carry near the influence as we do so I enjoy the very few "magical" Christmas' with the lil ones even more than I did with the older kids. Because I know oh too quickly how fast they grow!!
So in case the weeks get crazy as I'm sure they will.....
MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU!!!!
2 comments:
Liked your blog post. Sounds like you have things all figured out well. I teeter on the Santa thing too. I worry that I am taking away from them by not doing Santa. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas this year.
I wondered if ya'll started doing Santa ever??? I think its all about what traditions are special to your family that makes it special for the kids not about a character figure. In case it wasn't passed along ya'll and the family are invited out on Christmas Day. Have a lot going on with my side of the family so I hadn't sent an "invite" out but did tell Frances you all are welcome!
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