Guess it has been awhile since I posted a blog. Christmas has come and gone...and now it's time to pay the bills! Fortunately, I don't own a credit card, so my shopping is all paid for. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve day/evening at Pam/Robs. Arlene and I went over around 2 pm and we did a gift exchange of our stockings and gifts under the tree. If you read Pam's blog, you'll see we were working under a pretense that she could leave anytime to go to the hospital....again. We went to Brent's house that evening for dinner and board games. Joe and Ellen (friends of Rob and Brent) and their three kids were there also. We had a great time. Pam and Rob gave me a gift for my 1st anniversary of non-smoking - which I appreciated very much.
It was a rough day Christmas Day, as it was my first Christmas away from "home". I enjoyed being with Pam and Rob and Arlene and the "nearly due" baby - but it wasn't the same as being with the grandsons and great grandchildren in Maine. Those memories will always be greatest in my life.
I got lots of lovely Christmas gifts from my kids and Arlene. I think my favorite has to be a red scarf/hat set which Pam managed to knit for me without me knowing how or when she did it. Note the beautiful job she did with scallops on the hat. She does such good work with her knitting projects. The other gift which I guess we all got from the Migliores is a web camera so we can see each other as we talk on our IMs. Pam and Barbara have been doing this for weeks, but now we can all join in....once we figure out how to hook it up! I got a CD and a triple stack of snack boxes from Brian and a Patriots mug (eat your heart out,John) and an electric pot from Brenda. Arlene gave me home-made soap, arthritis cream, a candle, etc. I came home from Pams with 3 shopping bags full of gifts which included Brenda's and Brian's gifts.
Sasha had her Christmas stocking Christmas morning. She had a special can of Fancy Feast for her breakfast and then she attacked the stocking. Once again, Pam was the star of the day!! Pam knitted her a mouse with a bell on the tail.....forget about the rest of the stocking which contained toys I had spent good money for at Pet Smart. All Sasha was interested in was that mouse and her bag of catnip.
She reminded me of small kids who get tons of presents under the tree. After they open the first gift.....throw the rest out as the child is perfectly content to call that toy and its wrapping her Christmas. People today spend WAY too much on Christmas gifts for children and adults. If people would donate part of that money spent on gifts to further the Kingdom of God or donate to a homeless shelter or other organizations for the needy, etc. what a better world this would be!! We all need a wake-up call once in awhile when it comes to remembering there are many people out there not as well off as we are.
Let's hope 2009 is a better year for all of us. Happy New Year to you all!!
1 comment:
There are many people and families who do NOT spend "way too much" on gifts. Moderation is the key to everything, including holiday shopping and giving of gifts. One can also give to charities/church as well as giving gifts to their families if they budget their money wisely. A special part of Christmas is, in fact, the giving AND receiving of gifts, and should not be regarded as always being a negative thing to those who don't enjoy the holiday as much as others do. As a child, I can vividly remember our Christmas tree being over-loaded with gifts each and every year (very few of those gifts were from other people outside of the immediate family). You never had a problem with money spent on gifts then, but as you have gotten older, your attitudes and opinions have changed. Just wanted to point that out, and put forth another opinion that gift giving at Christmas is not a bad thing as you seem to have inferred on more than one occasion recently. Happy New Year!!!
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