Christmas Boundaries

I LOVE Christmas! I love the decorations, the baking smells, and thinking about how to make Christmas special for my family and friends.

There are many things that are great about Christmas but in our world today we also get swept up in the shopping of presents. Giving is a great thing to do and very much apart of the season but I think that you always have to keep a few reminders of the boundaries one should follow around the holiday.

First, we don't spoil our boys with gifts! They each get a stocking, this year it will hold a DVD, a clothing item, a small toy and a fruit. Yes a fruit because my hubby always remembers getting an orange in his stocking. They will get their one Santa gift and then a large gift from mom and dad. No giant pile of Christmas presents at our house. They get plenty from grandparents, great grandparents, and aunts and uncle that we have no need to over give in our house.

Second, this will be our first year picking a gift for a child that is in need and donating it. I have helped in other areas in the past when we can but this year it will be fun to get Monkey involved in picking out toys for another child that might not be as blessed as he will be this holiday. We will continue the tradition each year with each of our boys picking out at least one gift to giveaway.

Third, as a family we will go through the toys that the boys have and donate and/or sell what they chose to pass on to make room for the new toys. This not only helps with clutter and over stuffed closets and toy bins but it also gets more toys out to organizations that can pass them along to others in need.

I love the boundaries that we have set for our family at Christmas time! I have seen some great benefits in Monkey's behavior through this holiday season as well. My favorite conversation from Monkey so far was this:

Popa: Monkey what do you want for Christmas?
Monkey: Dino Destruction.
Popa: But that's what you are asking Santa for. What else do you want from grandma and me?
Monkey: I only want dino destruction. I can wait until next year for another toy.

What could a more could a mom ask for than a 4 year old that would be happy to get a $25 gift from Santa! I love that he isn't asking for more. That was over a week ago and still all he wants is that silly dino destruction which is bought and ready to be wrapped from Santa. I love that I can make my son's Christmas by buying one things. It isn't a mound of presents under the tree that he wants! It melts my heart. Now to start working on the giving part with him. I can't wait to see the success we have with that!

Comments

Day 2 of 31 Day to Clean

So I have told you the other day that I'm going to start 31 Days to Clean by Sara Mae. (For that post go to 31 days to clean post). So I'm finally on day 2 after several days in between. This will be the way it is for me because not everyday I will be able to tackle a big task, like day number 2, but I did it today and that is what counts. So what was day 2...clean the refrigerator and freezer (at least the Martha part) so that's what I did. I cleaned the refrigerator not that long ago but I figured I would just do it again and I'm glad. Just after about 2 months (maybe 3) it really needed cleaned again and I'm really happy that it looks really nice and I can find all the stuff that is in there again. I think that I'm going to put this on my To Do list every other month. I think that would be really helpful and that way it stays clean. I'm just going to put it in my day planner and when I have some free time on day I will do it that month. Sounds like a pl...

WEDDING! Part 2: The Day Of

**Warning more Picture overload!** I couldn't help it! WEDDING DAY! (August 6, 2005) On our wedding day I was so excited! I got ready at my parents house and J. and the guys got ready at our house. It was so much fun to get our hair done at a long time friends hair salon . After that we headed over to my parents house to start getting ready. Everyone was busy getting me ready and many people were up my dress trying to get my 'fluff' to stay up so I didn't have to hold my dress us when walking. My dad was kicked out of the house until I was done. I wanted him to get the whole sh-a-bang when he walked in. This was interesting. I had to climb into the truck but was not allowed to step on the tailgate and I couldn't see my feet. It was so funny! It looks like we were going fast but we really weren't but that's how we got to the park. THE CEREMONY! After all that hard work to make it so I ...

Monkey's Surgery

So I finally downloaded pictures and I thought I'd share the cute pictures of my little boy after his surgery he had in April. No one should have surgery at 3 years old but poor little Monkey had to have his gallbladder removed due to his blood disorder called spherecytosis. I had to stay in bed with him afterwards. He didn't want me to go anywhere. However, being pregnant made it so I had to use the bathroom quite often so luckily he was OK with Aunt Tiffany or Grandma holding his hand while I went. He hadn't been aloud to eat for almost 48 hours. He was starving! He ate almost the whole plate of pancakes and the nurses were shocked he could eat so much. They kept encouraging us to get him up and out of the room later in the afternoon after the surgery. So we headed out in the wagon first. He wasn't to happy about being moved and we made him walk a little bit in the room but he was glad to be out. Granny and Great Po...

Little Okie Homestead

Search This Blog