Shouldn't have been lonely with a 2 yr old to play with...you sound lucky to me.
Oh we are more than lucky, we are extremely blessed. The reason I say lonely is because we both grew up in families that got together and celebrated the birth of Christ and family time together, and not having that this year made it lonely.
Gotcha. I wasn't dumping on you at all...in fact, I was just remembering what fun my teen-aged daughter was at that age. Enjoy these days, they won't last....
This was the first christmas without my grandpa 
I do miss him.
I do miss him.
Christmas holidays are getting easier for me. I used to get severely stressed about the money and what to buy for people who buy whatever they want, whenever they want it. We grew up poor and now my parents have decent money but don't spend it because they don't need anything. Myself and my siblings are all gainfully employed and doing OK.
Several years ago, we made changes. We wanted to keep the family values (get together s, family dinners) and lose the commercialism. We still buy for the young ones but not for the older ones. We take what we would have spent on each other and put into a pot. We then draw two names out of a hat who get to decide what charities to help. (Last year was Wounded Warrior and Angelman's Foundation).
This year I am trying to give the gift of giving. I put money in envelopes to all my family members and asked them to give it away. Use it to buy ingredients and make cookies for a neighbor, buy flowers to take to the nursing home, buy doughnuts for the nurses on night shift, buy a homeless person something to eat, anonymously pay for some young families meal, etc. I enclosed a self addressed, stamped envelope and asked them to anonymously let me know what they did with their funds. I am going to include the answers in a letter back to everyone to give each of us ideas of ways to continue to help those around us.
I hope more of you will get away from the financial and emotional stress of the holidays and remember the real reason for the season.
Several years ago, we made changes. We wanted to keep the family values (get together s, family dinners) and lose the commercialism. We still buy for the young ones but not for the older ones. We take what we would have spent on each other and put into a pot. We then draw two names out of a hat who get to decide what charities to help. (Last year was Wounded Warrior and Angelman's Foundation).
This year I am trying to give the gift of giving. I put money in envelopes to all my family members and asked them to give it away. Use it to buy ingredients and make cookies for a neighbor, buy flowers to take to the nursing home, buy doughnuts for the nurses on night shift, buy a homeless person something to eat, anonymously pay for some young families meal, etc. I enclosed a self addressed, stamped envelope and asked them to anonymously let me know what they did with their funds. I am going to include the answers in a letter back to everyone to give each of us ideas of ways to continue to help those around us.
I hope more of you will get away from the financial and emotional stress of the holidays and remember the real reason for the season.
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