::xmas wrapping - our tradition::

I don't know when it started - but we wrap all our presents in brown craft paper.  Usually we add real ribbons, and in recent years markers + shorties has brought things to a whole new level.  

 

Every year my father, who is a master woodworker, carves us some ornaments.  One for each kid and then one for Josh and I.  I loved the little herd of reindeer that it ended up being. 

::Dec 2013::

 We went to visit Santa.

They had a real life reindeer!!  I was in love.  I thought seriously about talking Josh in to letting me have one.  

And then thought better of it.  But they are really cute.  

 

Max loved Santa.

Quinny not so much.

A selfie with the shorties is always a good thing.  

We made a little run to the Children's Museum.

And then the cupcake show.  

Emma is concerned that I am a mustard hoarder.

Max brought the charm to his first Xmas program.  

I have some pictures of Lily too (but mostly my shots where blocked by the kid next to her) - she brought her training as an actor to the stage.  

I wish I had a video of it.  It was top of the line.  

Quinn found his love for Cajun food.  

 Lily and I found a new local pizza place.  

 We set our personal world record for  most crap bought at the store.  Max thought this recepit had to be as long as Santa's list.  

And we are starting to more forward with Lily's room.  It is half girl and half Quinn right now.  We just need to bite the bullet and move the crib. 

::that flipping elf::

Our elf was up to no good again.  I didn't capture all his antics but here are some of his greatest hits.  

 Max lost his first tooth and our elf and the tooth fairy worked together to bring him a treasure chest full of quarters.  

::keeping it real::

Christmas stresses me out. 

It's a fact.  Over the last few years, and not really by choice, I have forced myself to have a personal transformation into one frugal chick.   Mostly by learning the hard way I have become ridiculously cheap.  OK - not to the point that we are reusing toilet paper or rewashing plastic McDonald's cups but still far removed from the girl that used to drop $200+ at Target just because "it had been awhile and I deserved it".  (That is an actual quote - what an idiot I was with money.) 

We have a few loops holes in our quest for frugality.  When it comes to Disney World we still go pretty big.  We look for ways to save money every time - and I still get a buzz when I feel like I found a money corner to cut without sacrificing fun.  But we spend money differently at Disney.  More freely, more accepting of it.  But we plan for it, and it is a special treat.  A rare event.  One week out of every year or so.  A time to not count every penny but just spend the hard earned cash we have in our wallet.  It is a group effort and takes serious planning.     

But Christmas... Some how it always seems to sneak up on me.  If you have worked with me in the last few years and you have children I have asked you about how you do Christmas.  I am honestly really curious, I am doing a personal survey for my own thesis in my head.  Do you buy each kid the same number of present?  Spend the same amount of money?  Just throw caution in to the wind and go shopping?  Everybody has a different strategy figured out, it seems to depend on money + age of kids + age gaps of those kids + religion.  My most religious friends seem to really dislike the gluttony of Christmas.  They want their children to be more focused on the religious part of it all.  I have even heard of each child only getting three presents - something about that Jesus only got three presents from the wise men.  It's not a bad strategy.  Keep it simple.  I am here to tell you that you can always go bigger but it would be pretty hard to go smaller. 

For us - I want our kids to have that full shock freak out moment when they come around the corner and see all the presents and just want to flip out with how many have their name on them.  I want them to live like rich kids for the day and roll around like little gluttonous fools.    It doesn't go along with the financially conservative person that I have become.  It doesn't go along with the parent I strive to be - a person who says no when it needs to be said.  No, you can't have candy in the check out line.  No you can't eat cake for breakfast (FINE - that a lie, I said yes to that.)  No you can't stuff your face or be mean or be selfish or be hurtful or be lazy.  All my kids actually know the word - glutton.  "Did you eat that whole bag of chips?  Do not be gluttonous!"  We talk about it.  I warn them about it, usually I am talking about food but they know it in the context of material things too.  We talk about that after a certain comfort and safety level money can not make you happy.  So what about Christmas?  What about over the top birthday parties?  How can I justify that?  I don't know.  I guess some times you just need a little break from being good.  A little break.  A LITTLE one.  It's like a pressure relief value.  Does that make any sense or am I just being a big hypocrite?  I have no background to base this on.  I came from a family of emotional neglect and material gluttony (I had the best shoes, kind of miss them some times) and I know that wasn't the way my kids where going to grow up.  Even if money wasn't the issue I still wouldn't give my kids all the stuff they wanted but not the attention they craved. 

Now, back to the money part of it all.  Our money situation gets better all the time.  Both Josh and I have had great luck in the last few years with improvements in our earning abilities.  It has been a major blessing, but our hard learned frugality has been our greatest weapon against the debt that still haunts us from our late twenties.  Yet, every month we chip away at it.  And minus stupid medical bills (Lily with a broken tooth and her broken arm), we are not taking on more debt.  But then Christmas rolls around.  We talk about a budget, we try to figure out how we can get to that point.  And we never do.  We are never ready.  My intentions are always good.  I will but a certain amount of money aside from each check into a Christmas account so by November first I have the money I will need.  And then more important stuff rolls around and I am still hustling to work overtime to pay for Christmas.  Which then leads back to the idea of gluttony.  If we were not so excessive with Christmas, then it wouldn't be such a financial burden and we would be making even more forward progress on our debt.

I guess it all comes down to this - is Christmas one of those super fun pressure release times (like Disney or birthday parties) or does it cause the pressure to build?  What is the solution?  I couldn't deal with the idea of those kids seeing the presents and being disappointed.  These little people being young and all home for Christmas is limited.  You only have them to yourself for so long before they have their own families.  Maybe my best solution is to really have more discipline about saving more ahead of time.  A locked in, can not be touched Christmas cash envelope.  Seems like financial stresses always have a way of being solved if I just go back to the basic idea of cash only and discipline.  Sometimes I want to just go blow $200 a Target on nothing I really needed.  Being a grow up can be so boring.  Good thing it comes with so many bonuses.

I have a pretty good idea of peoples different strategies of how you buy presents.  Now I need an idea of how you save for Christmas.  How far out are you setting money aside?  Do you put it all on a credit card and pay it off latter?  What do you do?

A totally unrelated picture of Max.  Just to lighten the mood. 

     

::all together again::

 We got our Donkey and Teddy back from my parents house.

They stay there ever summer and fall to let my pastures regrow.

But we missed them.  

 My silly little pygmy goats are happy as clams.

Grandma Willow is a big fat happy girl.  

I hope she has an easy winter, lovely old lady.

 Bruno left his sheep alone long enough to eat his body weight in apples.

 And our new fancy little baby wether - Beast, is living up to his name.  

What a guy.

 Annabelle can not leave me alone long enough to get a good picture.  

She is such a great girl. 

 And this rotten little baby - she may not be the perfect confirmational example I was hoping for but she is so sweet.  She and Annabelle are zippered to me all the time.   I am still struggling to find her perfect health.  She is just kind of weak and sensitive - hence the crusty eyes. 

 Obviously he is terrified of the dogs.

 And the green ducks are still extra green.  They are 100% free range now days.  But I give them a little food each night just to make them love me. 

 This crew is very happy my garden is done for the year because they are enjoying lots of free grazing.  The sheep and goats are best friends.  I pull the young goats to feed them, since sheep and goats can't share the same feed. (something about copper levels)

And here I am loaded down like a mama chimp.  Two rotten boys.  I can't believe it. 

::two new babies and a mini road trip::

We got two new baby goats!

This little man is names Beast - because he is one massive little guy.  

We are so glad that we got hooked up with a good local breeder that is now supplying us with quality pygmy goats.  Since us breeding them was a nightmare, its nice to just go to someone elses farm and point at the ones you want.  

 

And here is our little girl - Delilah.

Her mom rejected her, so we bottle raised her.  

She might be the friendliest little goat we have ever had. 

 

She follows like a puppy dog.

 

 

And Beast is a snuggle bug too.  

 

 

The breeder is about an hour from us - so we made a little road tip out of it.

And look at the local candy store we found.

I had a salted caramel truffle that I wish I had 40 of. 

::travel journal::

We have recently opened our eyes as a family to the idea of the all feared ROAD TRIP.  

And we love it.  

We have been on two road trips this year and both where full of fun and adventure.  

Last minute as we where walking out the door I grabbed on of my special notebooks and started a Travel Journal.  

We treat it like a real scrapbook - not the kind that is common right now, but an old fashion scrapbook.  Full of the scraps that we pick up along the way.  A journal of our adventures.  We write a little bit about what we did that day and throw in a little something from each stop - a sticker, a ticket stub, a key card, whatever.  

I hope that one day when we have many of these books full to the brim the Shorties will think of this as a true family treasure. 

::halloween 2013::

 

The only time is sucks to be a farm kid is Halloween.

So we load up the crew and head to our closet town to trick or treat.  

 

 

How do you like Q's duct tape boots?

 

Josh carved himself a Mickey pumpkin.

 

Max carved his all himself.  

And so did my Lily.

 This guy was standing on a street corner pretended to be Micheal.  

He was one scary dude.