I took my kids Christmas shopping. I recently discovered that most of my friends (often with only two children) have their children buy Christmas gifts for one another. Just to show you how complicated this can be with four children I will make you a little chart:
A family with two children:
Kate buys for Ben
Ben buys for Kate
A family with four children:
Aidan buys for Zoe
Aidan buys for Avery
Aidan buys for Ruby
Zoe buys for Aidan
Zoe buys for Avery
Zoe buys for Ruby
Avery buys for Aidan
Avery buys for Zoe
Avery buys for Ruby
Ruby buys for Aidan
Ruby buys for Zoe
Ruby buys for Avery
Understand? What for a family with two children is two gifts, turns into twelve gifts for a family with four kids. So I convinced my kids that the best way to use the resources (ie they each had a budget of $30) was to draw names. Actually, I just assigned them names and they each bought one gift. It was fun. Which surprised me because I hate shopping and because we left this excursion until the 22 of December so I expected chaos. It was mostly good. They choose appropriate gifts for eachother and they stayed within the preset budget.
We don't need more things in our house but the act of giving was important for the children and the thoughtful preparation: choosing, buying, wrapping were important things for them to participate in. Maybe next year I will encourage them to make their gifts for eachother but this year I just didn't have the energy.
Merry Christmas to you all! And probably Happy New Year too, since it's likely I won't be back until then. Love, peace, joy and happiness from our house to yours!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Warm Hearted
My last post was a bit on the negative side. I consider myself a mostly positive person. Except I don't want to be stepped on and I will stand up for myself and for my family. So I apologize for being so crabby. It has passed.
Yesterday some of my friends started playing a facebook meme. It is so simply sweet that I had to join in. A very simple concept: my friends were invited to send me an inbox message with a number between 1 and 100 and I would write them a message as my status that only they would know was for them. I started it as an opportunity to warm some hearts but what ended up happening was I warmed my own. It seems I had forgotten how many truly beautiful people I am surrounded by. I needed the reminder: people are good. Because often I am hermit like in nature and forget to reach out and touch the people I love (except for the five who live in my house, they are inundated with my reaching). If you have the time I suggest you try it yourself. I feel like I could conquer any adversity right now, it was empowering.
Also? I finished my Christmas cards. And I even enjoyed them this year which was a relief since I enjoyed NOT sending them so much last year that I was a bit skeptical.
Happy Friday!
Yesterday some of my friends started playing a facebook meme. It is so simply sweet that I had to join in. A very simple concept: my friends were invited to send me an inbox message with a number between 1 and 100 and I would write them a message as my status that only they would know was for them. I started it as an opportunity to warm some hearts but what ended up happening was I warmed my own. It seems I had forgotten how many truly beautiful people I am surrounded by. I needed the reminder: people are good. Because often I am hermit like in nature and forget to reach out and touch the people I love (except for the five who live in my house, they are inundated with my reaching). If you have the time I suggest you try it yourself. I feel like I could conquer any adversity right now, it was empowering.
Also? I finished my Christmas cards. And I even enjoyed them this year which was a relief since I enjoyed NOT sending them so much last year that I was a bit skeptical.
Happy Friday!
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Bah Humbug
I haven't posted in more than two weeks. In fact, I haven't written anything since I finished my NaNoWriMo novel on November 26. I haven't even looked at the 150 pages of my own novel or written a Christmas letter. I haven't written a single letter or note to my darlings. I have only tweeted, texted, and facebooked which hardly counts as writing. I miss the writing but I needed to catch up on some things, namely the house which exploded in Christmas Cheer.
Christmas Cheer makes it sound intentional. Trust me, I'm trying. Because the honest truth is: Bah Humbug. I hate the mess that Christmas makes in our little house and I hate the mass of shopping I will do over the next week, planned though it may be and happy as I am to give, the shopping part still slays me.
And then all my friends started changing their facebook pictures to cartoon characters with the disclaimer that they were doing it in an effort to stop violence towards children. And while I wholeheartedly support ending violence towards children in all capacities, I don't see what changing my profile picture will do towards that end. Today, I changed my mind: all of the changed profile pictures have brought to the table a discussion of child abuse. And discussion is ALWAYS important. Even if getting out and doing something is MORE practical, discussion leads to better awareness which tends to lead towards more DOING SOMETHING. And so, good on you all for changing your pictures.
Today I am considering the things in our lives which lead to intentional happiness and the bringing forth of Christmas Spirit. I am all in for intentional happiness. And I love that Christmas brings families together. I am looking forward to all of it. Now if only I could control the mess.
Christmas Cheer makes it sound intentional. Trust me, I'm trying. Because the honest truth is: Bah Humbug. I hate the mess that Christmas makes in our little house and I hate the mass of shopping I will do over the next week, planned though it may be and happy as I am to give, the shopping part still slays me.
And then all my friends started changing their facebook pictures to cartoon characters with the disclaimer that they were doing it in an effort to stop violence towards children. And while I wholeheartedly support ending violence towards children in all capacities, I don't see what changing my profile picture will do towards that end. Today, I changed my mind: all of the changed profile pictures have brought to the table a discussion of child abuse. And discussion is ALWAYS important. Even if getting out and doing something is MORE practical, discussion leads to better awareness which tends to lead towards more DOING SOMETHING. And so, good on you all for changing your pictures.
Today I am considering the things in our lives which lead to intentional happiness and the bringing forth of Christmas Spirit. I am all in for intentional happiness. And I love that Christmas brings families together. I am looking forward to all of it. Now if only I could control the mess.
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