since i had an evening coffee yesterday due to feeling like i should go to bed at 6:30 because of daylight savings time, i decided it was a good time to write this post...
thanks to an emergency, and i use emergency loosely, chocolate chip frappe run at 8, i am up at 1 a.m. watching erin brockovich. that is, until the channel it was airing on inexplicably shut off. (Lord, is that you??) however, i am now inspired to uncover all the nasty secrets of corporate america for the greater good. alas...it's november & i gots pine garland on the brain, so that crusade will just.have.to.wait. (i'll be there soon, sam walton!)
it's november. which means christmas. i mean, thanksgiving. oh heck, we all know it means christmas. I WANT A CHRISTMAS TREE. (haters, holla) it's officially the christmas season because 1. hallmark is blasting those cheesy mcneesy movies filled with magical christmas cheer (dang i love dem, doe). 2. i have broke out the christmas book. what is the christmas book, you ask??? it's this deliciously tacky journal of sorts (AS SEEN BELOW) that i have kept since we got married (a la 2003) where i journal everyone's gifts. basically, this is how i keep track of what we have bought for who, as well as how much we are spending. every year i like to flip back through the years to look (and laugh) at some of the gifts & gasp at the amount of stuff we bought. 2005 was a good year, though.
this year will be our 3rd year doing the gift of the magi. this was in hopes of centering our family around a now over-commercialized time of the year. it was in hopes of bringing more thankfulness, contentment & reverence to this special season. things were just getting out of control trying to one-up the christmas before. we were feeling discouraged & stressed & basically dreading the month of december. and that just will not do.
the idea mirrors that of the 3 gifts Jesus received from the magi. although we have tweaked (every time i look at that word, i think it says twerk & i hate myself for it) it a bit each year to work best for our fam. basically, each kid gets 3 gifts: a need, a want & a wish (or more accurately "the surprise"). the need is an outfit, their want is that one item they want to ask santa for & the wish or surprise is something hubs & i decide to, well, surprise them with. in the past, the surprise has typically been a trip of sorts to somewhere we haven't been before. typically a night or two stay. an adventure that we get to experience together. where we create memories & invest time...not just collect more stuff. as far as tweaking (TWERKING-ugh) it a bit, we added "read" as a 4th gift. our kids love books (and that's definitely something i feel passionate about encouraging) so they each get a new book to open on christmas morn & read while on christmas break.
after the first year of us trying this new 3 gift idea, i won't lie...we were very worried about how the kids would respond to such a big change in christmas. i mean, it's CHRISTMAS. the most wonderful time of the year & jazz. but so far, with every passing december, i am continually surprised by those little boogers of ours. they haven't cared one bit. it just reaffirms to me that what they need is not more stuff, but time & love & togetherness. that's what they truly desire.
ok, so, you all wanna know what each one is asking santa for this year?? i have to tell ya, it's kind of hilarious. lincoln wants an lsu football helmet (???). kennedy wants a cd walkman (hello 1994). emma wants...well, what every teen/tween wants, some sort of new smart device. (cue mom eye roll). she'll probably get socks. i know, i'm such a stick in the mud. (blog post about raising teens today coming soon, i swear). olive wants the cute little wooden moose rocker from ikea! i mean, i'm sure that's what her longing stares are saying to me.
if you want to know more about our current christmas situation or want to look back at our christmas's of yore, follow along with our christmas story on instagram at #shamblinchristmas.
and a merry thanksgiving to you...tweak, TWERK, oh miley, where did we go wrong...
