Seeking Proof

I had posted this on mypsace, but wanted to copy/paste it here as well.

I want to be more prepared this Christmas. I always want this, but I never follow through.

The past several years, I've been out on Christmas Eve doing last minute shopping. A couple of times, I've been out when the stores were closing and they were making people leave. One year, I had procrastinated so wonderfully that I forgot stocking stuffers and ended up shopping at CVS. That year, each of us got finger nail clippers, chapstick and CVS style stuff from Santa in our stockings.

I don't want to repeat that this year. I want to enjoy the month of December. I want the last week spent enjoying my family, our decorations and the true meaning of Christmas.

I'm always such a chaotic mess!

So in being more responsible, last night I had my kids go ahead and make their Christmas Wish lists. I wanted one list of stuff they wanted us to get them and one list for Santa.

My oldest 2 still need to do the Santa list. Branci will do this and is still a believer; as far as I know.

Of course, Kie hasn't been a believer in a long time, but he's awesome in keeping the secret and helping with the magic and he too will make the Santa list.

All 3 lists are very reasonable. I was surprised, relieved and very happy at their wants. None of them want anything too expensive or crazy. I guess the most expensive thing on the lists would be from Kie, but I expect that. He's 14.

Anyway, Summer made both of her lists. I wanted to share her list to Santa. I think she's starting to wonder about Santa and she's seeking proof! Here is her list (remember, she's 7):

Toy Chicken
Toy Barney (she's out of Barney, has been a long time, I think this is another example of wanting proof)
Toy Chic (yes, this is different than a toy chicken....)
Real Watch
Littlest Pet Shop
Card from Santa
Purple Barbie
Dry Erase Board (they have one! I guess she's wanting one small enough to fit in her stocking?!)
Picture of Santa and Mrs. Santa
"picture of elves and my presents"

Hahaha!!! The girl is seeking proof!! Of course I'll pull it off, but definitely need to figure this out ASAP! There's no way I can wait until last minute on that one!

Jesus is the Reason for the Season

I'm still working on this blogger.com thing. Mary if you read this, will I have to update yours and Steph's (or anyone's) link every time I change my template? I had to this time.

So the countdown til Christmas is in the teens. I had started Christmas shopping last month and had a game plan set. I always stress at Christmas and I shouldn't. I'm really trying to work on this. I finally got myself to quit stressing for birthdays. Christmas is the real test.

Since I had a game plan and all, I was confident about Christmas shopping. I wasn't stressed. I knew what all was going to go down and how and when.

Then something changed.

We bought a vehicle. We now have a car payment and extra insurance payment. Two weeks went by that moneys that were planned to go in a different direction, went toward vehicle preperations.

Todd keeps telling me to not stress. Everything will be fine. And I know it will. And I need to just get over it.

Jesus is the reason for the season. I've been repeating that. Because it's true and losing focus of that is not good.

Playing Around

I'm going to try and figure out blogger.com before I just give up. I've figured out how to add a page element (thanks Mary!). I'm going to play around w/ these features more and see if I can make this a little more interesting for myself. Right now, I'm not used to the set up and just find that a little too much thinking is needed to do anything. But I will, at least, give it shot.

I'll do a real post when I get pictures, background and all of that stuff ready.