The Holidays are Coming!

I know just about everyone gets stressed out with everything there is to do once the holiday season comes around. There's all of the shopping, cooking, baking, and decorating to do, then there are parties to attend, family pictures to take, Christmas cards to address and mail out, etc. It can be a really busy time but it is enjoyable and fun too.

Last year was the first year Raymond and I really had extra money to spend on the kids for Christmas. I had just started working occasionally for the courts so I wanted to buy stuff for the kids. It was dumb, really. I had this vision of the kids waking up on Christmas morning and seeing a decent sized pile of gifts for them under the Christmas tree instead of the normal 2 or 3 things they each got. We didn't spend a whole lot on the boys but we did buy them a bunch of clearance toys off of Amazon. It was my idea. Most of the items were large sized, like dump trucks, a huge set of Mr. Potato Heads stored inside a giant Pirate Mr. Potato Head and some very big dinosaur toys. And of course, the kids didn't really play with them for very long. They ended up sitting in boxes in my garage because I was sick of seeing all of these things the kids did not play with! I just sold some of those toys for 50 cents and $1 at a yard sale on Saturday that my SIL Angela and her mom (my MIL) had. :S Yeah, great way to spend that extra money I had last year. Grrrr. You live and learn, huh?

So this year, I want to do something different. My kids have a bunch of toys that they genuinely just do not play with very often. More often than not, Jonah is wandering around the living room making car sounds and there is not a single toy he's playing with, he's just using his imagination! I do NOT want them to get a lot of toys again this year. With Jonah's birthday around the corner and Christmas not too far away, I know they'll get toys from other people. What do I buy them though?

I found this really cute saying online for what to give your children for Christmas, especially if you want to keep things simple and not toy focused. It goes like this-
"Something to read, something to wear, something to play with, something to share."

I absolutely love this idea and wanted to share it with you! I really don't want my boys getting the "gimmes" every Christmas so Raymond and I decided we'd go back to keeping it simple and follow this little rule. Raymond even thought it was a good idea for the two of us as well! :) I decided a couple of Christmases ago that I wanted to give the kids new pajamas that they would open on Christmas Eve and make it our little family tradition, so that takes care of the something to wear part. There are already a lot of books I want to get for the kids so that will be easy.

I'm so excited to have a plan and focus for gifts this year and every year. Yay!

Someone please smack me over the head if I start buying a bunch of toys again! ;)