fool4fish1226 said:
Jim said:
I chose Thanksgiving, but because I have 3 little ones at home, I would say for now it is a tie. Once they get older it will be Thanksgiving by a long shot.
I’d have to disagree, I’ve got a ‘pre-teen’ at home, and it’s still Turkey Day for me…now for him…probably a different story. :roll:
LonLB said:
Seeing the excitement on their faces is one of the best things ever. I LOVE CHRISTMAS
This is probably the primary thing that keeps me liking tolerating Christmas. I do love to see how excited kid’s get when it comes to present time.
LonLB said:
I will say one thing about christmas.....
I'm a bit disapointed in our oldest. His list is like two or three pages long, and most of what he wants is 40-100 $$$ with probably 60% being $75 or over.
He even asked for some new handheld video game thing that is $200.
And he won't STOP telling us what he wants.
This year more than ever we want to teach them there is more to Christmas than receiving gifts.
They are getting much less "things" this year, but we are taking them to the Field Museum in Chicago, and taking a train to get there, so they will remember that for a long time. Especially since they are into Dinosaurs.
Might even take them to some cool place for dinner over there if we can find something.
LonLB-
Your post really stuck with me…
The wife and I run into this problem too, mostly with extended family, but, at times, with our son as well. My wife’s of the “crafty sort”, and I’m a pretty handy guy with just about anything that can be used to fix/break something else…that said we usually take the time to make more ‘handcrafted’, ‘homespun’, or ‘homemade’ types of gifts. It does take more time (which makes us feel good as we have to think about WHAT we’re making for WHOM), hopefully the recipients realize what we put into it. The nice thing is that it’s usually a lot cheaper than buying junk that people really don’t need, which keeps our lives, and hopefully theirs, simple.
In year’s past my wife has made pillowcases from Christmas fabric for the kids so they have a ‘special December/Christmas pillow’, matching PJ’s for a whole family, baked goods, etc., once we even made all the kids jelly from Mountain Dew, Coke, or Kool-aid! This year, we ordered a coupla hundred feet of paracord to make survival bracelets for the boys, and some cool leashes/dog collars for a survivalist/dog lover on our list. Surprisingly, we could make 10 bracelets, a collar and a leash for about $25 of materials shipped to our door.
Historically, the hardest void to fill on our list has been my wife’s grandparents (in their late 70’s). The ol’ man has just about every tool under the sun, and doesn’t need much to fulfill his wants/needs. For the past 2-3 years we stopped buying them crap and prepare them about 5-10 frozen meals; pot pies, stews, soups, fruit pies, etc. That way they don’t have to spend time cooking, just whip out a homemade meal from the freezer, defrost, heat and wallah!
It may not be much, but it means more to them than the Kindle someone bought Grandma last year (which is still in the box) or the rest of the family’s idea to “go in together” and get Grandpa an iPad….SERIOUSLY…WHY DOES GRANDPA NEED AN IPAD!?!?! #-o