75 days.......

until Christmas that is. where oh where does the time go? I've decided this year with all the changes being made in my life that Christmas will be different as well. We didn't have much growing up but my mom made sure to do everything she could to make up for that at Christmas time. We've always made sure to buy Serenity & Xavier everything we would think they want. (whether it be for Christmas or their birthday) Serenity is just now getting at the age where she sees things she wants & says "I'm gonna put this on my list for Santa." So why in the world did we think we had to go so overboard before when half way through unwrapping she gets bored anyway. I set a price limit for them every year but Skip or I always find that one more thing we think they just have to have. well if Serenity had $30 more spent on her then it's only fair that Xavier does as well. and the cycle starts where their limit just keeps going up & up & up & up. Not this year.

now time for a story in a story.......               


                                   A couple weeks back we were stopped at a gas station. Skip called me and said can you buy 2 sandwiches, a bottle of water, and a bag of dog food. I was a tad confused but I said ok and bought it. as the cashier was ringing me out I remembered seeing a man with a dog sitting next to the building when we pulled in. I brought the things to the car gave them to Skip & he proceeded to give them to the guy. I picked up Serenity showed her the puppy & then when we got back in the car explained exactly what was going on. I told her that the man was having a rough time & didn't have any money to buy any food for him or his puppy. I told her that he  had told daddy he would feed his dog before he worried about feeding himself. I told her that even when we have bad days God is still always looking out for us & he will always take care of us and that when we can we like to help other people. She just smiled and said ok. Not many days after that she asked me one day if the man & his puppy were gonna be ok. I told her I was sure they would be and re-explained again how we like to help people whenever we can because it's a very nice thing to do and told her that at Christmas time we like to help people and asked her if she thought that was a good idea. She very excitedly said YES, YES,YES.

so back to our Christmas. Skip & I used to get the "angels" off the tree at walmart, then other years we would do toys for tots. those are always a bit of a gamble though. I mean I would truly hope that those toys actually went to where they needed to or that those "angels" really didn't have anything for Christmas. But sadly in today's world there is no guarantee of that. Last year my mom had the good idea of getting in touch with a local children's home. I called and found out what info I needed & stayed in contact with a woman on how to get Christmas gifts for 7 or 8 boys ranging in age from preteen to late teen. we opted to go with the boys home because we were informed by the woman that sadly people are always wanting to buy for the girls. I would assume that's because girls are generally a lot more "fun" to buy for.based on this we were dead set that we wanted to buy for the boys more than ever now. So, with the new way we are learning to live our lives it only makes sense to teach my children that you get such a better feeling in your heart when you give even something small instead of always having to receive big