Christmas has filled our home!

It's Christmas time in our home. Well, at least the decorations are going up. The tree has been up for about 3 weeks, the indoor decor is increasing everyday, and some of the outdoor lights went up this past weekend. This is my favorite time of year.

There's so much I love about Winter. The beautiful lights that luminate the night, the bold reds & greens of decorations, the change in spirit of most people, and even the blankets of snow that usually find us in December. People seem to find a little more patience, and a lot more generosity during this time of year. You see the Salvation Army Santa ringing a bell outside many stores, and like me as a kid, you see all the kids anxious to put some change in the bucket. The Christmas music is playing in stores and on the radio. For me, I always end up getting one of my favorite flowers, the Poinsettia. Yes, I am a sap when it comes to Christmas. I look forward to spreading my own Christmas cheer to anyone I meet. I look for ways to help my children understand the true meaning of giving. We donate to our local food pantry, we purchase hats & gloves and donate good coats, we try to purchase at least 2 angel tree gifts every year. We have offered to donate our time to help boxing the food pantry's food, and try to make sure we help as much as possible.

In our area, there are a few second hand clothes stores, but every one of them charges what I see as too much for families that are struggling. I have spent the last few years wanting to open up a store that offers clothing to people really cheap or free. Take in donations from the surrounding areas, and put $1 or less on everything. If families don't have the money for the items they need...it's free! I would love to give this to our local communities, and that will be a project I will be working on in the coming year.

As we began the holiday thinking early this year, we looked at what is being called the 4 gift rule. The rule was basically, 4 gifts - one from each category: want, need, wear, and read. Although we typically do close to this and have for many years, I thought 4 gifts, that's easy enough. I was wrong. This year, instead we put a very minimal amount of a dollar limit per person. This gave us a little more flexibilty. We do not buy big items at Christmas. By setting a dollar limit per person, this caused us to have to get creative. We kept the 4 gift rule categories in mind, but also had a little more room to move around as need be. Since our oldest has more expensive "toys" now, and the youngest is still really easy to buy for...we had to make descretion for that too. We also spoke to Santa this year. Many years ago, we spoke with the man in red, and told him to spend more time focusing on children that didn't have Christmas. We asked him to let us take care of our kids, so that other children could have a Merry Christmas. So, this being said, Santa usually only leaves 3-4 gifts and Mom & Dad take care of the rest.

This year, including Santa's gifts, we put a $100-$125 limit per kid. Richard and I spend $75-$100 each on gifts for the other. We also decided not to purchase gifts for extended family. We will be making a lot of cookies, bread, candy, and ornaments to give, but nothing will be purchased. For the first time in several years, our Christmas budget was cut in half. I don't believe the Christmas is about all the commercial toys, all the electronics, or even about material stuff. For our family, Christmas is about family, friends, and helping those who have less than we do.

My kids know they will not be getting the latest and greatest new video game system, or the new computer or electronics that is going to be outdated before leaving the store, they also know that most of what is advertised on television is junk. I spend so much time with my kids that I know their personality. Although this year was very difficult to buy for the oldest, once I reset my mindset, I just had to remember his personality. I had to remind myself that he isn't all that much different from me.

So, although we did not stay with the 4 gift rule, we did stay minimal. Each of the kids has 4 gifts from Santa, and 6 from us. They always get a small gift in their stockings, and this is what my kids know. Do they go without, not hardly! My kids have so much they could provide Toys R Us! There seems to be no logic to me when people max out their credit cards, or break the bank to give their kids so much for Christmas. I hear people talking about buying the newest video game systems, new electronics, or some new toy and I can't help but wonder why. Electronics are outdated basically before you leave the store, the video gaming systems are great if you want kids that never go outside, and most of the toys made now are so cheaply made after they've been played with a handful of times...they are trash! My kids still get excited over new clothes, books, and things that help with their hobbies. Both my kids have learned to shoot guns; mind you the youngest is only 3 so she still only gets to shoot the BB gun and the 22. The oldest is 12 and this was his first year hunting. The youngest is discovering Barbie, much to our dislike, but doesn't want much just a few things to plan with while she plays with my old Barbie house. She loves Dora, horses, puzzles, and most girly stuff. Although she's the first out the door to help her Daddy with shoveling manure, driving the tractor or feeding the pigs/chickens/horses or cows. The oldest is much more difficult the last couple of years. He has gotten out of most toys, but still loves his farm toys and star wars. Now he's gotten into shooting, hunting and animals. He bought his first calf last year, and his first pig this year. He is now in search of a Bore so he can raise some piglets in the Spring. He loves the horses and cows, and is learning the farm life so much better than I would have imagined. I am very proud of the young man he is becoming. He is constantly helping his Grandma, and loves to spend time with his Great-Grandparents too. He is very independent, which proves to be a battle when it's time for school work, but we work on that a little every day.

In the year that we have lived on our farm, we have all had to learn and grow. We have learned to work together, the hard work it takes to keep everything running somewhat smoothly, and the value of dedication. We are working together to make our farm as organic as possible. We don't use chemicals, fertilizer(except natural manure), our animals are fed only natural/organic feed, and we are raising or growing most of what we eat. We have eggs and meat from the chickens, our beef from cows, pork from the pigs, and vegetables and herbs from the garden. We hope to get fruit trees put in come Spring, and a section of the pasture is going to grow for wild herbs too. We have so many goals that are still unmet, but we work hard every day to achieve them. We still have decks to build, a shed to finish, need gravel in the driveway, a wooden yard fence to build and want a good size barn to get all our stuff out of my Mother-In-Laws barn. We want to get our horses worked a little more so we can ride more. I want to get my kitchen remodeled to make it more usable for all the cooking/baking I do. We want to start having a regular gathering of neighbors to keep our rural way of life alive. Times are tough for everyone. Our rural communities haven't been affected to the extreme that many cities/towns have, but we have been affected none-the-less.

We have several dreams we have realized, while several dreams have yet to come to fruition. My husband and I were raised with morals, and very high standards. We are trying to pass those along to our children. It's more important to help family, friends, and neighbors than to compete with them. That is our family thoughts, and we hope to be an example for others.

Wishing you all a Happy Winter, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
~Salli