How much more?

How many more things can I possibly need to buy this season? It seems everytime I turn around, I have either forgotten someone or something and I wind up shopping again. And when I end up shopping, it's never cheap! LOL! I think I have blown my original modest budget by 200% now....and I'm not joking. Between having Christmas brunch at our home (taking Terry to Jungle Jims is quite the experience at this time every year!) and taking something to Christmas Eve, and then getting into gift exchanges and so forth, it just gets out of hand! I am going to have to rethink all this next year. I love to give give give, but at what cost? And our kids today have so much already...how much more do they really need? They start out so young having everything and more, and then each year becomes more difficult to buy for and more expensive in order to out-do yourself from the year before. This year neither child asked for anything super big (although Zac did mention a Wii early on, but that was shot down from the get go and we have since forgotten about it) and I still wound up spending more than I had hoped. They will be excited come Christmas morn, but really, that's not what I want them to get out of it at all. Yes, it's fun to get new stuff, but it's even more fun to be together and be with our family and friends on that day. They saw the "show" at church today, called Awaited. It was an original show and it was the Christmas story played out through music and dancing and snow falling from the ceiling via snow machines. Lillie sat with me and I leaned over to tell her what was going on throughout, so she really got it. She then thought that the REAL baby Jesus was on the stage and started to get all excited. I burst that bubble, but she is still talking about the story. That's progress!

Back to the spending....we have even decided to stay home this New Years' and not host anything, like we have in the past. We are going to stay home and watch the ball drop in our jammies, curled up with hot cocoa (and maybe something a little stronger?) and I plan on reading my way right into 2008. I borrowed about 6 books for my almost 2 week break and I plan on getting through most of them. Borrowed, as in FREE, as long as I return them on time. FINALLY, something besides christmas cheer that's free this season!