on presence.
this year we toned it down.
and by toning it down we had 4.5 christmases instead of 5 or 6.
we had a lovely time and it was much more fun with bird being 13 months than 1 month. shhhheeeeew.
no offense to anyone with newborns around the holidays, but the thought of it brings back exhaustion.
(if i have anything to do with it, a spring or summer baby we shall create... not any time soon).
below are some picture hi.lites. i snapped what felt like, millions of pics, but truth be told, when there are 3 little people and relatives in town i didn't snap all that many good ones when it comes down to it.
stella on christmas morning with her new handmade fox from the city flea / let's play the game 'get 3 kids under 3 to smile with their great grandparents / playing at grandma and grandpas / pockets in the snow / me with TWO tired ONE year olds (please excuse my wine stained teeth and stella's hair bows in my hair) / zonked from present opening. when in doubt climb in a cardboard box
like i said, we had a lovely christmas. all 5 of them, and good news is we felt less tired than last year (i guess that is a given since bird was only 1 month though and but we DID NOT get sick!)
while the holiday was wonderful and the visits were nice, i feel the need to focus more on presence than presents next christmas and those to come. consumerism is tainting the holiday a bit. don't get me wrong, i know buying is good for our economy and all that jazz, but it's just too much. and while i am grateful that too many presents are our problem verses not being able to give and recieve, we need to tone it down another few notches next year.
with a one year old, judge if you want, santa didn't get stella much. i bought a recordable book (which she will enjoy more next year), a handmade stuffed fox, which she likes, and some camo joe jeans discounted in a 2T size (again for next year...). i knew stella would get plenty of presents from both sets of grandparents and the massive amounts of great aunts and uncles so i did not bother to play up the santa card especially when she doesn't know what a present means and santa is merely 'ho ho ho' when we point to the picture or statue. when is too much, too much?
there were so many presents this christmas that there was less time spent being present. mister and i talked and we'd like to put a max on gifts both for kids and adults. there is no real need for our parents to be buying us multiple gifts and vice versa. it's certainly nice and appreciated and yes, we are blessed, but that's not what i want to teach our children going forward. i want them to have memories for christmas filled with family and music and giving and yes, receiving. i want to instill the spirit of christmas and the real reason why we give. it seems it's getting lost across the board in society.
there is so much buy in with santa, consumerism, commercialism and materialism. i didn't take stella to see santa this year. why? because i knew she would hate it. we didn't give her many presents as "santa." why? because she likes the boxes and paper more than the present. does that mean i'm taking away from her christmas? if you ask me, i think it's enhancing it. if "santa" raises the bar so high in the younger years then there won't be a santa by the time our kids have grown and all will be lost.
my friend posted a similar story on her blog just after my sister and i had the same discussion. i like her idea of limits of 3 gifts. while it's hard to control what other people gift your child, mister and i will do our best to spread out what we open through the year. i already tucked away gifts to take out during the year as bird may get bored with the things we have around now. when over stimulated she goes from toy to toy to book to book.
i truly want to emphasize that we are so grateful for ours and birds gifts. we just need to find a little more balance in giving in years to come. more presence and less presents.
in closing i'll leave you with two anecdotes from the two oldest nieces:
*hazel was in the midst of opening piles of presents, probably over stimulated and unable to focus on what she got (this is somewhat normal for a 3.5 year old i know). she opened one of the presents from us and declared "i love this" after packing 4-5 small objects into a colored pencil case. a coworker of mine said she gets some things from the $1 bins and her nieces love it. i took her advice and wrapped up 8-10 small items and yes, she loved it and walked around with it the rest of "present opening" time.
*santa brought pockets a piggy bank. when asking what it was, her moma said 'this is for your money'. pockets asked for some more money and her moma said she had to wait for someone to give her some. her moma said you can buy something, save it or give it to someone who needs it. pockets replied 'i'll give it to someone who needs it'.
let it be known, kids don't need material things until we make them think they need them.
and by toning it down we had 4.5 christmases instead of 5 or 6.
we had a lovely time and it was much more fun with bird being 13 months than 1 month. shhhheeeeew.
no offense to anyone with newborns around the holidays, but the thought of it brings back exhaustion.
(if i have anything to do with it, a spring or summer baby we shall create... not any time soon).
below are some picture hi.lites. i snapped what felt like, millions of pics, but truth be told, when there are 3 little people and relatives in town i didn't snap all that many good ones when it comes down to it.
stella on christmas morning with her new handmade fox from the city flea / let's play the game 'get 3 kids under 3 to smile with their great grandparents / playing at grandma and grandpas / pockets in the snow / me with TWO tired ONE year olds (please excuse my wine stained teeth and stella's hair bows in my hair) / zonked from present opening. when in doubt climb in a cardboard box
like i said, we had a lovely christmas. all 5 of them, and good news is we felt less tired than last year (i guess that is a given since bird was only 1 month though and but we DID NOT get sick!)
while the holiday was wonderful and the visits were nice, i feel the need to focus more on presence than presents next christmas and those to come. consumerism is tainting the holiday a bit. don't get me wrong, i know buying is good for our economy and all that jazz, but it's just too much. and while i am grateful that too many presents are our problem verses not being able to give and recieve, we need to tone it down another few notches next year.
with a one year old, judge if you want, santa didn't get stella much. i bought a recordable book (which she will enjoy more next year), a handmade stuffed fox, which she likes, and some camo joe jeans discounted in a 2T size (again for next year...). i knew stella would get plenty of presents from both sets of grandparents and the massive amounts of great aunts and uncles so i did not bother to play up the santa card especially when she doesn't know what a present means and santa is merely 'ho ho ho' when we point to the picture or statue. when is too much, too much?
there were so many presents this christmas that there was less time spent being present. mister and i talked and we'd like to put a max on gifts both for kids and adults. there is no real need for our parents to be buying us multiple gifts and vice versa. it's certainly nice and appreciated and yes, we are blessed, but that's not what i want to teach our children going forward. i want them to have memories for christmas filled with family and music and giving and yes, receiving. i want to instill the spirit of christmas and the real reason why we give. it seems it's getting lost across the board in society.
there is so much buy in with santa, consumerism, commercialism and materialism. i didn't take stella to see santa this year. why? because i knew she would hate it. we didn't give her many presents as "santa." why? because she likes the boxes and paper more than the present. does that mean i'm taking away from her christmas? if you ask me, i think it's enhancing it. if "santa" raises the bar so high in the younger years then there won't be a santa by the time our kids have grown and all will be lost.
my friend posted a similar story on her blog just after my sister and i had the same discussion. i like her idea of limits of 3 gifts. while it's hard to control what other people gift your child, mister and i will do our best to spread out what we open through the year. i already tucked away gifts to take out during the year as bird may get bored with the things we have around now. when over stimulated she goes from toy to toy to book to book.
i truly want to emphasize that we are so grateful for ours and birds gifts. we just need to find a little more balance in giving in years to come. more presence and less presents.
in closing i'll leave you with two anecdotes from the two oldest nieces:
*hazel was in the midst of opening piles of presents, probably over stimulated and unable to focus on what she got (this is somewhat normal for a 3.5 year old i know). she opened one of the presents from us and declared "i love this" after packing 4-5 small objects into a colored pencil case. a coworker of mine said she gets some things from the $1 bins and her nieces love it. i took her advice and wrapped up 8-10 small items and yes, she loved it and walked around with it the rest of "present opening" time.
*santa brought pockets a piggy bank. when asking what it was, her moma said 'this is for your money'. pockets asked for some more money and her moma said she had to wait for someone to give her some. her moma said you can buy something, save it or give it to someone who needs it. pockets replied 'i'll give it to someone who needs it'.
let it be known, kids don't need material things until we make them think they need them.
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