Christmas 2009

Season’s greetings!! I can’t believe I haven’t checked in with you guys all week. It’s been a little hectic over here as I’m sure it’s been for you as well. I’m so glad to have survived another holiday season. This year’s theme was, “Too blessed to be stressed.” I really thought the Christmas tree was going to look a little hungry this year. With three kids and one steady income, it has been challenging these past 12 months but God is good and we always seem to find a way to make it work.

What I realized this year is that what we want for our kids is not necessarily the same thing as what they want for themselves. I grew up an only childe and received so many gifts for Christmas year after year it was almost embarrassing. I have a picture of me when I was about 6 or 7 sitting in a room surrounded by gifts. I couldn’t move because it was literally a wall-to-wall toy store. As I got older, the gifts began to dwindle peaking at the year I just received socks and underwear. It was a real shock to me and I swore as a parent, I would give my kids meaningful not commercialized Christmases to avoid potential let downs.


But as most parents know, what you say pre-parenthood and what you do post-parenthood are usually two different things. I was unable to control the gift giving and found myself doing what I swore I would not do. This year, since money was tight, I was forced to scale back. And my children were perfectly fine with this. What I noticed is that they are completely happy with anything they get and it doesn’t have to be a lot. I’m grateful that they are appreciative and not spoiled that way.


Is the recession God’s way of telling us to ease up and focus on the necessary? Focus on what truly matters? Sometimes it takes a force of nature so to speak to make you see things clearly. This was a great holiday season in which I let go of the stress and focused on my blessings. This is the example I want to set for my kids. Hopefully I can teach them to be thankful for the things they have. I think next year we’ll scale back just a tad more on Christmas and explore the African American tradition of Kwanzaa.


Hope your holiday is filled with joy and a multitude of blessings.