Thursday, December 6, 2012

Christmas Budget

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Isn't that title the funniest!?! 

Every year I say lets do a budget...it never really happens...it kinda does but not really.  Some years it's interesting to me how different Frank and I grew up and other years it's nothing but frustrating!  He grew up so different in some ways than I did...kinda like the other side of the train tracks you know!  Every year we struggle with how much to spend on the kids, how much the Santa gift should be...and we ALL (don't care WHO you are) have our idiosyncrasies/neurosis..and for Frank that is, that the kids all have the same number of gifts under the tree.  I didn't grow up that way and I personally find it extremely exhausting...just outright exhausting.  BUT..because it's important to Frank we make it happen...which is how sometimes the budget gets blown out of the water.  Now don't get me wrong...I'm not blaming this all on Frank...I have been known to just go all out and we'll figure it out later.  Not such a good way but I've done it.  In the past we've done where they get a Santa gift, and stockings...and then 3 gifts from us...Frank hated it and I loved it...because let us not forget the gifts they get from family and possibly friends...it gets to be too much and trying to figure out just where to put all that stuff is enough to send me screaming from the room!! Frank likes to get them exactly what's on their list...and I never made a list when I was a kid...however, I do find lists helpful from the kids...but more often than not I don't buy off them.  I prefer to do event type gifts for a few reasons.  Some are that it's one less things to try and find a spot for, most of the time they can do something with their family or as a group, and like we've taken the kids to a baseball game...well that's an event and then sometimes they get to take a souvenir home...small one.  I guess when you look at it that way they are still bringing/having something brought home...I don't know.  See rambling are never good...you start seeing the flaws in your own thinking/reasoning.  Dang it!

Anyway, then you have the kid who has the champagne taste on mom and dad's beer budget...we all want to get our kids what they want...other times trying to reason with them about why I won't buy it for them is difficult too.  If they don't take care of what they have now why on God's green earth would I buy a way more expensive item of the same thing?? I don't get that thought process but I don't think I'm suppose to understand a 10 year old and why he thinks that way. 

Every year it seems to get harder and harder trying to come up with something substantial and fun and that will last  along time and not wrecked in the first 5 minutes of it being opened.  And lets face it $20 doesn't go as far as it used too...unless of course you have a baby...you can get away with a whole lot.  We did that with Eli on his first Christmas...he got a small toy from Santa...a car seat from us and maybe one other thing and that was it...he was a month old for heavens sakes...what was he gonna do??  We have Eli figured out at least Santa wise...possible Dru Santa wise...as for the other 2??? I was just asking Frank how old they are when they stop asking for toys and start asking for things like Boom boxes...I am SO tired of buying toys..toys that last for a month or so or until some older or younger person breaks the toy. I told the boys last night that believe it or not one of these years they are going to ask for a $50 pair of jeans or $100 pair of shoes...they SCOFFED at me!!  You know they really do believe I just fell off the turnip truck you know! When they start asking for those things it will be interesting to see how Frank deals with that or what he chooses to do...

We will be writing Santa letters this week...I'm so glad our Post office brought out the mailbox for the kids to mail their letters to him!! What I love about our town or whoever does this...but when you write a letter and 'mail' it...someone takes the time to sit down and respond to those letters to the kids and sends them a short note and something special like a coloring page or something...one year they got a small ornament...how cool is that.  Maybe someday I'll figure out who does that and see if I could that...but man can you imagine the sheer amount of letters you could possibly get...eesh!

Well there's my ramblings for the day...nothing astounding is it?  I am going to write my own letter to Santa I think...of course my list has the potential to be super long...something about asking him for a new computer...I swear I've been good all year long Santa!!  Scouts honor!

4 comments:

  1. I've been meaning to ask... what happened to your computer? Completely dead or just in need of fixing?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sigh...the computer...well bad computer and it caught a cootie or someone spilled something on it...either way I now have a computer...I still have to share and well...I can only hope that it lasts longer than the last one! Better computer this time around!!

      Delete
  2. Oh Anita- I love your blog! Okay- how come Frank didn't like the 3 gift thing? That is what we do and I love it. Our kids still get gifts from so many people- they have plenty. And When we do 3 gifts I try to get them really fun stuff. :)

    I hope you had a wonderful Christmas- I'm glad you are back to blogging!
    ~Kelly

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey Kelly!!! So I think he doesn't like the 3 gift thing because it limits his fun...LOL something I'm not sure...probably because it looks like they didn't get much...but he grew up different than I did...and his parents go nuts at Christmas. I will say however, that since they have so many grandkids now they have slimmed WAY down! He tries to stay in a budget which is big for him...we come close...and to be honest I am never really sure if we stay on budget.

    We had a good Christmas and with a concerted effort on my part to have a better Christmas spirit it wasn't half bad...I really had no idea people paid any attention to what I did in my home and how I felt about Christmas...people noticed when I didn't put my tree up until 2 days before Christmas...LOL Who knew!

    I hope you and your family had a good Christmas too!!

    ReplyDelete

Music That Moves You

I don't know about you guys, but there are times in my life that are defined by music. The summer after I graduated High school was Tom...