I got to thinking as we are a bit more settled and not moving around as much I would share more of our day to day learning and ideas that I felt worked or didn't work. Either way just things we do as a family that may or may not be the "norm" if you know what I mean.
One being Christmas. Not the actual meaning of Christmas, but how we chose very early on to celebrate it. I must say, I, along with Mark, were very frustrated with the "retail nightmare" of Christmas. So we decided not to exchange gifts and just enjoy time together or do a handmade card/gift. It was a great idea that we passed on to my family which of course took ALL the stress out of our holidays. No more fighting the crazy lines in shops, wondering what to give the person who has everything, good ole just hanging with good company, games, movies and food was all we needed.
Then we had kids and thought what now?
Well, first of all when they are under the age of 2 they have no idea anyway so we just enjoyed our traditions of decorating the tree and visiting family etc. We would watch other folks go absolutely crazy buying and buying when in the end the kid only wanted to play with the box! So we decided it is up to us. Whatever we start we have to continue with. We can make the rules. We don't have to fall into the trap of topping each year with more or bigger gifts.
We both decided we would start our own Christmas tradition and our children would only receive 3 gifts. Just like baby Jesus received. I mean it was the least we could do. It is HIS birthday anyway right? I figure if we were to celebrate Christmas and the whole Santa thing we could at least somewhat parallel it to Jesus on His day? Well, sort of...I guess Santa in the red suit with the magic reindeer were not by Jesus' side. Anyhow, you get the idea. So we started our tradition. The boys put out cookies for this wonderful Santa who brought 3 gifts to them and got SO very excited year after year. They never made long daunting lists, yet always felt like they got SO many presents! Mark and I would literally go out on a day together(like a date for us just being alone together) and chose the 3 gifts and a few stocking stuffers and Voila....done...no stress and NO stress on our pocket books! And we tell all the family to not buy the boys gifts either. They can spend time with them and spoil them when they want to. Just not when everyone else and their mother is doing it.
We still do the tradition of 3 gifts even though they do not believe in Santa Clause anymore(which is a story all in itself) but I feel that by never "over doing it" the boys are really appreciative and not greedy when it comes to the holidays. They love just decorating the tree, traveling to my parents, good food, good company, and lots of good movies! And NOT so focused on ALL the gifts they are going to receive. So far a good idea for all!
