Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Blog Slacker...

I must say that I have been somewhat of a blog slacker lately, but..... it is all for good reason. Our family has been spending some quality time with the Moes Family.(Krysta's family) They were without power for quite some time so they decided to join us. We had a blast, but neither one of us spent much time at the computer. So... I must apologize to my angel sisters for slacking. I asked each one of them to take the time to post a Christmas Tradition, and I haven't followed through on the task I presented. So... here is mine.

Not only is this one of our Traditions, I also think it is a wonderful way to save money and cut down on some of the expectations that our kids have at Christmas.

We give our children 6 gifts from Santa, and 6 gifts from us. We have a short little poem that explains this, here it goes:

Something to wear
Something to read
Something you want
Something you need
Something to play with
...and something fun indeed!!

This a wonderful option for our family. Our kids know they are only getting two toys, two outfits, two items on their wish list(wants), and two surprises that are up to us. (fun indeeds) It also helps us cross off some of the needs that they may have, like our son got a back pack last year, and our daughter new mittens. They also know that they are getting some new books. Which I think is so important.

I love this idea because it cuts out all the fluff, it makes shopping easy, and my kids know what to expect.

To make it fun... I have made up tags that I recycle from year to year. They say what is inside like... something to read. This saves me so much time. All I have to do is tape the tag on. I found these adorable tags in the $ section at Target, and then some of them I made with rubber stamps. Our kids like to line up all their gifts once they have opened them and see what each gift is;this is my something to wear, something to read, and etc. You could also make them guess which gift it is.

When that is all said and done, then they have two family gifts to open, a game and a movie. Then we always do some treats in the stocking. This has helped my sanity at Christmas time. I am so thankful for this idea.

I guess you could say this is not only a tradition, but also a way to cut out some of the unnecessary of Christmas.

7 comments:

Brock and Kimber said...

I love this idea. It is so easy to get overwhelmed and stressed out during the holidays. My friend actually told me about an idea similiar to this last year and I am so excited to start this tradition with my own family!!! I think that it will make the hoiday season a little bit less stressful for me.

Jennifer said...

Thanks for sharing! The more our family grows, the more I need something like that as well!

Jason and Kristina Murphy said...

This was such a fab idea one that I would love to start with my own family. Perfect to start now when our one and only (for now) is young. Thanks so much...for all your thoughts and ideas.

Lindsay and Mike said...

Great idea! Love it!!!

The DeVito's said...

I love this idea! Frankie and I are going to implement this this Christmas. It's our first one as a "family" and now is a great time to start traditions!

Beeks by the Lake said...

what a great idea - we'll have to try this next year. I kind of got sucked into the American Girl doll store in Chicago this summer...oops!

Krysta said...

That turned out really cute. I think I might give this a try. I start out with the intention each year and then go overboard on everything.