CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!

I finished my Christmas shopping last night for my nine children, their seven spouses, and their nineteen children (my grandchildren, minus the one that will be born next summer :) I still have to finish shopping for my husband. Usually I am done by the end of October or early November so I was hassled this year that I didn't have it all done. (is "hassled" a word? it's how I felt out there jostling with all the other shoppers.{is "jostling" a word?}) :) So now I have a total of at least 57 gifts to wrap. Whew !!! (is "whew" a word or am I just making up my own vocabulary as I go along?)

I am giving three gifts to each of my children (family gifts, not individual - I really would be nuts if I had to figure out individual gifts for each person.) We buy all the same gifts for each family and then also for some of the grandchildren. The younger ones I have to pick out individually because they really have a difference in their abilities from toddler to three years old.

Besides all that we have three birthdays in December. That means three more to buy for by this Sunday for our family birthday party.

It just occurred to me how blessed I am to have all these people in my life. And I am glad for this time of year that I can give them tokens of my love. I should say "we." Joe provides the money for all this gift giving and is equally happy to have our children, their spouses and the grandchildren.

I am excited to have them all open the gifts we have for them; to see their reactions. I hope they like them. I start buying Christmas gifts in the summer so that by this time I'm all done. Well, I still have that one more gift to get for my husband. I hope it won't be too hard to find what I have in mind.

Next year we are going to have to seriously cut back on what we buy for Christmas and birthdays this next year as Joe has had a 25% cut in pay and we have been making that up by using our retirement money. On the other hand we've thought
that we should buy what we need and want this next few months because when the inflation hits as a result of the TRILLION dollar bailout and the TRILLION dollar stimulus package there will be no buying power in our money anyway. So cutting back on our expenses really won't matter. It's something that's hard to fathom. It's hard to go against our mentality that we have to save for our retirement.

Enough of the doom and gloom.

I am happy to have this Christmas time of year. I'm happy to celebrate the birth of our Saviour. I am happy that He was willing to make it possible for me to repent and learn from my mistakes without losing exaltation. I am happy to look forward to our little Christmas pageant that the grandchildren will put on on Christmas Eve. I am happy that Joe will be home for the two weeks of Christmas and New Years. I am happy to anticipate our traditional BIG family breakfast we will be having Christmas morning. I am happy to be able to watch everyone open presents on Christmas morning, as well. I am happy that I get to have my 6 chocolates (three key lime and three lemon truffles , YUMMMM) on Christmas Day and New Years Eve. (I still have to figure out a way to get through from Mother's Day to our anniversary without any chocolates. Maybe I'll have to start celebrating the 4th of July and Labor Day with chocolates. hummmm. I'll have to think that over.) I'm happy that we were able to go to the Christmas program put on by the Church this year even though we were late because of HUGE traffic jams and the fact that we ended up in the very back of the balcony in the most far left corner of the Conference center.
Oh well, it was an inspiring production and I enjoyed myself. (Thanks Jenn for the tickets)

Christmas is going to be great! I can hardly wait!

Lub lubs, Everyone