Happy Wednesday and have you ever had a "lightbulb moment" when something suddenly becomes crystal clear? I've had loads and this latest one is not the most profound but it will certainly kill 2 birds with 1 stone! Horrible saying-should be something like bake 2 cakes from 1 lot of ingredients-right!!?
Anyway, I was contemplating the fact that I haven't begun shopping for Christmas and I haven't written my Christmas cards (my first one arrived through the post today) and in fact I haven't even begun making the Christmas cards to write in-EEK! This is not so unusual for me (unusual was the year that everyone in Canada received my cards in November because I sent them snail-mail with the pressies but they only took a week to get there instead of the 6 I had banked on them taking!) My contemplation arose because Bill was asking whether or not I had written my Christmas letter-obviously, after reading the last bit, you'll know that my reply to that question was that I have not begun to write anything yet!
Imagine my delight when my lightbulb moment was that I shall just do a Christmas Blog which tells everyone about the year! Actually, I may have to run that by my kids as they may not want their names and cred written about on mums blog, for the world to see if desired (including their peers if they got wind of it!) Oh dear, my lightbulb has just blown at that last thought and I could swear**!!*##*DRAT!
Oh well, most of my lightbulb moments actually are wonderful or perhaps it's just that I don't write them down and therfore don't really take into account all that they entail-oops!
This week, we watched a lovely (made for t.v) movie set in Toronto in the 1920's during the depression. A family struggling to make ends meet before the father subsequently losing his job and the way the kids were accepting of all that was going on. Their parents were up-front with them on the fact that there would be very little under the tree-if indeed they were able to afford a tree. They wanted to teach the kids about pride and standing on your own two feet and providing for your family. It was heart-warming and wrenching at the same time and as it was a movie, it had a wonderful ending.
In the current economic climate, I fear for the debt that some parents will feel obligated to take on this Christmas to give their children everything on their Santa list. It's not necessary to do this, folks because the best gift we can give our kids is the honest truth about what's going on and why there may be less than other years under the christmas tree. Little people, especially, get far more than their attention span could ever cope with and I've seen some who are bored at the unwrapping because they got a toy they wanted in the first package and that's what they want to run off and play with. They may ask for a lot or we may feel the need to show them that they are loved by increasingly adding to the amount of presents given but for the most part, they are much more easily pleased than we give them credit for. My kids are getting older now and especially the elder two will want little other than gift vouchers and money to buy what they want in the January sales. But I suspect that I may need to buy some trivial things to wrap, to make me feel better. They love the junk food and the family games and us all being together. Admittedly-presents also make them happy but they are not the most important thing and if they are disappointed at a lack of something, that soon disappears. For parents seeing any disappointment, they sometimes get stuck feeling guilty for causing it.
Children are robust and in general do not hold long-term grudges against their parents (not till they're adults anyway) Watching a Christmas movie or playing charades will usually be all they need to keep them smiling (along with some sweets/chocolate-after the fruit, of course)
As this Christmas approaches, I'm going to try to be less worried about the amount of presents I wrap and think instead of the fact that I've offered to do Abba singalong with them on Christmas day. Laughing at my singing will be better for all of us than a heap of presents that they may look at a few times before I send it to the church sale or the charity shop!
Think about how you're feeling as this holiday season approaches and think of how the tiny small things may be the ones that are the most important and not that Diamond ring that didn't materialise!!
Sending much love out into the world as always, this Wednesday,
Lxxx
p.s. only 4 sleeps till Lynn arrives-not sure whether or not there will be a blog next week-we might be out and about too much for my bum to sit in this chair long enough to type it
Lx!
Posted on Wed, December 2, 2009
by Linsey Denham