I am back. That was an unplanned break. Sick children and a full schedule has been keeping me busy. Decided to crank it all down a notch today, we all stayed at home, listened to music, played 'dog shows' (don't even ask) and I even got to do some cooking. Pumpkin soup and a sun-dried tomato, goat cheese and onion tart. It was delicious.I am starting to think about Christmas coming and a little one's birthday and wondering how I am going to do things this year. I really want to scale things back with the gifts, toys etc., and have a more thoughtful and less materialistic holidays. I am just not sure how to get the balance right between what I want my children to have/experience to what they want and expect. The last thing I want is two unhappy faces on their special days. I just always remember when I was a little girl the big sack of toys left from Santa and all the excitement that went with that, but at the same time I don't like the idea of that for my boys. I know that will probably sound very contradictory and maybe a little selfish on my part. I am still trying to figure this one out.
5 comments:
I am not sure if your children get gifts from relatives, but when you think about all the gifts they get it ends up being a lot. I am kind of greedy and tend to give my children too much because I never had much. Doesn't make much sense, but every year I say just a couple of things and end up buying more than I should have. However, I have a friend who buys each child in their family just 3 gifts. Just like the wisemen. Then she has a rule that one gift can be a just because gift, the second is a spiritual gift, and the third is a physical gift something they can use outside etc. I also have another friend who wraps up all the christmas books they have and lays them under the tree then every night leading up to Christmas a child selects one book for the family to read that night. Though the children might have seen the books before it is always a surprise which book they will get making it kind of like christmas every night. We celebrate advent which is the four Sundays prior to Christmas we read stories, eat treats, listen to music or sing. We also donate a gift per child to the giving tree or to the Foster children. I let my boys pick out the gift. It helps then to understand the concept of the less fortunate. I guess what I am saying is there are lots of ways to celebrate the holidays without lots of gifts. Good luck! I am sure you will find the balance.
I had a Lionel Ritchie moment then, when I saw the title of your post. That song's going to stick with me for the rest of the day now.
That soup sounds AMAZING!
And I'm with you on scaling back the madness that the holidays can turn into. I've found that I far prefer a thoughtful gift over an expensive one. If you're already starting to think about this, the kids will probably love it all the more when they open their 12/25 goodies, and you'll love that it didn't run you a fortune :)
I totally agree with you in the gift madness. We are quite strict with what we give to Matias since as you say there are so many relatives that send presents at christmas. Usually my husband gives him one present and I give him one. we try to make them handmade presents. We have not been very successful at imposing our handmade wishes on our relatives. Most of them still send way too many gifts (usually quite useless ones!), but we just accept is as it is. As long as we keep our traditions at home, that is what counts!
I think you need to start putting up the recipes to those delicious edibles you show us~! I LOVE pumpkin soup.
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