Saturday, October 18, 2014

Holiday time is upon us

  I know I skipped my last week and I apologize. Had a busy week and the closer it gets to Thanksgiving and Christmas it will just get busier. Although my Halloween time is busy too! I have probably about 4 Halloween parties the next few weeks. Plus you of course want to hit up the pumpkin patch with the family. Time just goes by very quick.

   Although it's only Halloween season the stores already have Christmas out and the frenzy already starts in my mind. I think shopping for Christmas a little at a time each month is good for budget but I don't know about you but I usually end up giving it early cause I'm so stinking excited!!! So I try to take one holiday at a time! I have been getting irritated how holidays are getting pushed out and over run by others. I'll admit I like Black Friday sales,but you might as well call it black thanksgiving now because everything is on thanksgiving now.  I can see the pros to it but I also see the cons. Holidays to me are for being around family and spending time with each other.

   Retail and marketing ploys want you to think the best present will make "Johnny" happy and your relationship closer. As most of you know that's not how it works. Even though we all know this doesn't work this doesn't stop people from going over board. Or if the kids live with two different sets of parents they want to out do moms gift or dads gift. It's sad, I'll admit I love to see  my boys  excitement with new toys even if it happens to only be twice a year at their birthday then christmas,but I never feel like I go overboard or put my self in debt for it. They are almost 3 and 18 m anyways.They don't even know what's going on. Plus it seems like they enjoy playing with the boxes/ wrapping paper more then the gift itself. :) This is not an attack on any who splurge on Christmas every year I know there are some that save all year to give their kids every thing they want,but realistically I know most don't they just throw it on a credit card. To me the holidays should've more than the materialistic mumbo jumbo.

  Holiday's = traditions and building family memories and good times. When I look back on my child hood I never remember what gift I got year after the next,but the traditions we kept. Going to get the Christmas tree, driving around looking at Christmas lights, seeing Santa, seeing different cultures nativity's, eating Christmas Eve dinner,  acting out the nativity as it's being read from bible, sitting around the thanksgiving table and saying one thing we are grateful for, Christmas breakfast, caroling, giving to needy,  making cookies, listening to music  and decorating for the holidays!the list goes on and on. Oh how I love this season for that reason.






  On a personal note. As most know we were struck with finacial difficulties because of my first born son and his heart problems.Him being born in december and surgeries in january and march we were struck with 2 deductibles a life flight and other monthly doctors and prescription bills.  I was forced to stay home and take care of him because if I didn't he would get very ill and possible die. Then when I found out I was pregnant with my Surprise pregnancy when my first son was only 7 months old I was daunted once again. We are not the type to ask for help we were just living with in our means. My hubby was working as much overtime as he could and luckily we were able to live off of our tax return and pay bills it still was hard. The christmas of 2012,  was going to be very simple we bought shane I think one large toy and I knew grandparents would give him gifts so I wasn't worried because he would be just barely a year old. Although I knew coming up we would have more financial stresses buying another crib, double stroller since our boys would only be 15 m apart. My mother in law called us and said that she paid for us to get family pictures done, I thought this was odd concidering I was 7 months pregnant and wanted to do a family picture once the baby was born but I went with it and about an hour in to us taking great family pictures we got a knock on the door. Ill let the pictures explain the rest. It was all a ploy!:)













 We were chosen by aTHM remodeling company https://www.facebook.com/thmremodeling who one of Nathan's old co workers worked for and they do a sub for santa for a special family every year.
She knew we would never ask for help even though we needed it and they gave us all the things we could need for the upcoming baby and christmas for shane that year. We were truly humbled and blessed by everyone's donataions and sill to this day I feel like we didn't deserve it but I guess thats a normal reaction. I will never forget and will always remember this and give to others also in the future.
  Let's take a deep breathe this holiday season and spend it with our family and remember what the seasons are about and why they are celebrated!

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