Saturday, November 28, 2009
Ramble: Advent Conspiracy
I came across the above video while blog hopping and was very excited.
You see, I've been a bit down lately when thinking of the upcoming holiday. Usually the coming of Christmas fills me with joy and delight but this year has been a little different. This past summer we started the Dave Ramsey plan to get out of debt and it has drastically changed our lives in the process. It may not appear so from the outside but we now budget EVERYTHING with all extra money going to pay off debt. The cool thing is we've paid off close to $5,000.00 of debt in the past 4 months! But I digress.
We decided when we had our first child that we'd try to keep Christmas more about Christ and less about consumerism. We continued a tradition my parents started in my family, each child got three presents from Mom and Dad and then one from Santa. I wanted to go a step further away from too many toys, especially since we knew that's what most of the family would be giving, so we agreed one gift would be a toy, one would be something educational and the third would be clothing; the gift from Santa would be something asked for (within reason).
This year we applied the budget to Christmas shopping as well. I have been so stressed trying to figure out how I was going to give the girls the Christmas I felt they deserve on about $40 per child. I've been having so many internal struggles with this. I know they don't "need" any of this stuff but I want to give them things. Some how, I've finished shopping for both girls on less then budgeted and since Josh and I have decided not to get each other anything all we have left is to MAKE our gifts for family and friends.
Tomorrow is the first day of Advent and we've already started taking steps to (hopefully) ensure Brenna understands Christmas is about Jesus' birthday and not about opening presents. Tonight we read a poem and a bible verse as part of a series my church doing during Advent and on December 1st we'll start reading The Advent Book, the true story of Christmas. *Side note, this is an amazing book!
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Oh Sis! I am so proud of you and Josh for making this awesome commitment! You two are doing a great job. I know it's hard but the lifestyle of Christ focused Christmas gets easier. (I know you are focused on Him!)
ReplyDeleteWe do family volunteer projects. There are kid appropriate activities, ie making cookies for the neighbors, babysitting. (Stuff you already do.) Go pick a name off the Angel Tree and let Brenna help pick the item.
The last couple of years we haven't been buying the kids gifts, we take that $$ and go have a fun experience- snowshoeing back to a yurt. The last year they got something it consisted of leather work gloves $10, educational toy $10 and a book.
The kids don't expect a lot. They do love to save their own money and buy for each other. When they were younger I took them to the Dollar store.
Keep up the great work and focus on your blessings! You are an inspiration to many!!!
Love,
Jenni
I admire you very much. I wish we would have started this when the kids were young but I'm afraid it's a little late now (at least for the gift part - not the reason behind the holiday). I wish I had half of your discipline. I'm too flexible (or lazy is more like it). Good for you and your family! :D
ReplyDeleteLove and miss you my dear friend!