Post-Christmas Update
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I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We had a busy, fun-filled week of visiting relatives and celebrating the season. Though things were scaled back quite a bit at our house, the kids were very appreciative of all that they received. Sometimes I accuse them of being spoiled (like most kids, they are in many ways), but they always impress me with their gratefulness at Christmas and this year was no exception.
Josh really impressed me this year. We found a great deal on what he was really wanting — an X-Box 360 (the older, less expensive version since I have no intention of letting him play online anyway), but his one big gift meant that there wasn’t much else for him under the tree. We wrapped a couple of inexpensive Lego sets, but that was about it. We didn’t want him to get suspicious or feel slighted, but we didn’t want to wrap the X-Box either, being sure he’d know what it was.
My husband, the consummate pack-rat, still had the original box for our ancient X-Box in our closet, filled with clothes (you know, the ones that he might wear…someday), so we wrapped that. Josh opened it up on Christmas morning and was so excited to see the X-Box emblem that I started to feel guilty. Although I could see in his eyes that he was disappointed, he didn’t let on and kept a smile on his face. Brian told him that he knew that he was saving for an X-Box, but we wanted him to experience what it might be like to open one on Christmas morning.
Josh didn’t get upset or act disappointed the whole time we were opening other gifts…but he sure did have a big smile on his face when Brian brought in the box with the real X-Box in it. He put the Christmas money that his grandparents gave him to good use buying a couple of new games and we haven’t seen much of him since. Well, Brian has. Josh’s room has suddenly become the guy hang-out.
You can visit my weight-loss blog to see one of my favorite gifts, given to me by my aunt. I’m also very fond of the new Paula Deen cookware that I bought with my Christmas money. I haven’t had new pots and pans since Brian and I got married 18 years ago.
I’ve been busy getting the house back in order, catching up the laundry, and putting away Christmas decorations, as well as beginning to get things planned and organized to resume school next week. It’s been a busy week already, but it’s been nice to have time to organize, something I always do this time of year — including the cabinets for the new cookware. I hope you’ve been enjoying some downtime, too, before it’s time to finish off the last half of the school year.
Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
Love the Xbox story- my Brielle (12) has been wanting a laptop for months. She asked for it for Christmas and I told her Santa (we still talk about Santa for the all of the little ears around) doesn't have that kind of money to spend on just one gift. She beggeed and pleaded but finally agreed to ask Santa for some money to put towards saving for a laptop. Christmas morning everyone opened the first round of gifts- Santa brought Brielle some Lands End earmuffs- which she NEEDED. Second round of gifts- her laptop!! She was shocked and excitied and didn't mind at all that there were no more gifts from Santa for her under the tree. 🙂 Now I am excited about not being haunted about when I'm getting offline so she can have a turn. 😉
Brianna was dying for a laptop, too, but we really couldn't find one that we could afford, so we started her a laptop fund. We gave her a jar with some starter money in it. That, along with the Christmas money she got from her grandparents, gave her a really good head start. By her birthday in May, she'll probably have enough.
That sounds like a fun Christmas. What a great story about your son. They always manage to surprise us don't they?