One thing I learned this year for Christmas is never have a baby right before the holidays. Even though I did my best, it was really hard to be the happy mommy that my family is used to. I have been suffering with the baby blues and a mild form of PPD that this Christmas was really hard for me emotionally. Thankfully I have a WONDERFUL husband who was very helpful with our family traditions. On Christmas Eve I just couldn’t emotionally stand it any longer so I went to bed at 8:00pm. My “Dear” Bryan put the kids to bed, cleaned up the living room, and put out ALL the Christmas gifts, including the ones from Santa. It was nice to not be the one to have to do it this year. I just don’t think I could have physically done it.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas but the real reason we celebrate it is to recognize the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I’m so glad that the commercial part of it is over for our family. My children got WAY too much this year. I went overboard and my mom did, as usual. Bryan and I decided that next year the kids will only get two gifts from us and only ONE from my mom. Then of course they will get their stocking gifts and presents from each other, etc. We just feel that it was way overdone this year. Part of it was because of the new baby. I wanted them to have a really special Christmas morning but what I found was that they were all happy after just opening up a couple of gifts. After that I think they were just overwhelmed.
Just my thoughts.
So I've been following your recent posts (and they're all so great!!), but I thought I'd take a look back at some of the older posts you made…to see where you've come from. 🙂
This particular post is truly inspiring…it's a nice reminder of (like you said) the REAL reason we celebrate this special time of year!
I hope your family has a wonderful Christmas Season! 🙂
Thanks for sharing your work & beautiful inspiration with all of us!!
Julie
julesandjono@yahoo.com
I hope you are taking care of yourself.
I know what you mean with too many gifts. We did better this year, but have definitly had years that there are just too many and I worry about the kids being too into the gimme gimme and not realizing the true meaning of Christmas.
Hi Robyn
I know what you mean with being overwhelmed with gifts. I worry, too, that my kids will learn to value the stuff too much but in the long run it will be the family time together acting out the nativity that they’ll really treasure.