While the merry bells keep ringing...

Confession: The kids watched a Christmas movie this afternoon (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer), and we listened to Christmas music in the car this evening. We started with The Oak Ridge Boys Christmas, which is a perennial favorite. It doesn't really 'match' my musical tastes in general, but we've played it every Christmas that I can remember. Christmas wouldn't seem like Christmas without "Christmas Carol" and the rest of the songs. Then I put the iPod on shuffle and clicked over to the Christmas playlist, all 280 songs of it. Needless to say, we didn't listen to all of those songs, but we certainly did start.

I love Christmas. I love all the trappings of it. I'm not a big shopper, at Christmas or at any time, but I do like to go to a mall once or twice during the Christmas season, just to walk amongst the crowds and hear the Christmas music playing in the background. I have to resist the temptation to go completely overboard with regards to gifts. Not just to the kids, but to pretty much anyone to whom I choose to give presents. The money supply is only finite, however, and in the end, I don't think it's teaching a very good lesson to the kids to get piles and piles of presents.

We're trying this year to limit it thusly: one fun toy, one more educational toy, one 'media' item (a CD, book, or, this year, magazine subscription), a book from Mommy (as opposed to both Mommy & Daddy, a tradition that started when I gave my oldest She Is Born), and a calendar for the new year. We'll see how this works. I've also heard "something to read, something to wear, something you want, and something you need" as a rule of thumb. FB would love to get something to wear, but EG would still crinkle her nose and getting something to wear as a present!

I don't know if I buy into the "love languages" thing wholeheartedly, but I do know that gifts are generally my love language. I do get limited monetarily from time to time. When I'm receiving, it's not about the size of the gift or the expense, but rather, the amount of thought that went into the gift. I think that's why I had such trouble getting nothing but gift cards from my extended family, the last few years that the adults exchanged gifts.

So, Christmas. Here we go again! :)