So thankful for our Christmas miracle!

If there is one thing I have learned this year, it is this: Just because I have been doing something the same way for so long, that doesn’t mean I must always do it that way. No, there has to be room for trying something new. For growth and learning. For “thinking outside the box.” Something happened a few days before Christmas that made me realize that maybe the same old method of Christmas shopping for my kids just isn’t a good system to rely on anymore.

What we usually do when Christmas shopping for the kids is I get them a few things earlier in the month – usually on Cyber Monday, since I prefer to shop online, but I also did something different in that regard this year. But, yeah, I usually get them a few things. Then, later on in December, my husband buys the rest of their Christmas gifts. (It’s pretty cool that we take turns with it!) But this year, he wanted the kids to have a more “memorable” Christmas. He suggested I buy them one “big” gift and he’ll get a couple of other “big” gifts too. No little gifts like pajamas or books or stuff like that. He wanted it to be different this year. So I agreed to it and bought the kids their most-asked-for (AKA "the items they’ve been bugging me to get them all year") gifts, along with a stocking stuffer. Little did we know that this Christmas was definitely going to be a memorable one, and that was NOT going to be based on the gifts they found under the tree!

Let’s stop for a minute to cover how my Christmas shopping experience went. And let me first say that I’m a bargain hunter! If I can score a good deal on an expensive item, then I’m all over that!

First, I waited for the right day. Since most of the shopping I was planning to do was online, I waited for Cyber Monday to shop for Christmas. It was worth the wait: Not only was an item marked down 50% but I also got FREE SHIPPING -- a perk many online retailers were providing on Cyber Monday.

I also comparison shopped. One way to find the best deals on the items I was planning to buy was by comparison shopping. I check prices on an item at different stores. I also kept an eye out for any coupons or "bonus savings" being offered on an item. For one Christmas present I bought, I noticed a site was offering it at a 20% discount price. I checked a store where I could buy it locally and it was being sold at full price BUT if I bought the item through the store's website (Barnes & Noble), it was on sale for 50% off! That's a nice slice of awesome!

Another thing is I didn't settle. There was one item I wanted to buy for my son this year that was something I was NOT ready to forget about. It was really bugging me to get this thing for him. The problem is, I had a hard time finding it at a price I could afford. Although it's an old item, ordering it from Amazon or Barnes & Noble meant getting a shipping cost that was MORE than the item price! Not cool! I didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for shipping. I was willing to pay a reasonable price but not pay more for shipping than the product price! So I kept looking. I decided to hit local stores. Unfortunately, none of them had it. BUT, when I went to Target.com, I was able to buy this item from the website. Awesome Thing #1: It was at a discount price. Awesome Thing #2: Ordering from the site meant FREE SHIPPING! Yay! If I drove to another town to get this item from a Target store, it would cost more than the price on the website. But ordering it from the site meant a lower price AND free shipping! I was stoked to come across this and it was definitely worth the extra time it took to find a deal that I was happy with.

Okay, now, back to what happened a few days before Christmas.

Gee, I thought getting hit by the cable company was bad! We got hit by another company with an even larger bill to pay…three days before Christmas. We could NOT get an extension on this bill. We were forced to pay it. And the amount that we paid was almost all of the money we had for our kids’ Christmas presents as well as groceries for next week. So we were looking at not being able to get the kids anything else for Christmas. They had 1 present from Mom and Dad under their tree (along with a gift they got each other, as well as gifts from family friends).

This was really depressing. I was SO upset! That stupid company ruined my kids’ Christmas!

I shared about this on Facebook. I had felt so down and out about it that I even said I had lost faith in the spirit of helping others. I mean, why would people DO that? They were right up there with people who break into houses on Christmas Eve and steal all the presents! They were right up there with the Grinch!

I have some AMAZING friends and relatives who took the time to offer support and some suggestions on Facebook on how to turn this thing around. A lot of people I know have been in just such a situation before and they shared some really helpful information on how to handle this. My kids have never been in this situation. There was always more than one Christmas gift from Mom and Dad under the tree. So I didn’t know how to handle it. How to talk to them about it or what to do to make our Christmas happy despite this setback. I mean, even with 7 kids, my parents STILL managed to get us all more than one Christmas present every Christmas! I remember that some years, we even had a family sponsor us and get us all gifts for Christmas! Heck, a whole fire department did, one year! And when Jennifer and I were on our own and I was struggling to put food on the table, I still got her more than one Christmas present that year, because I worked as a babysitter and cleaning a friend’s house! This kinda situation was completely new for me. It wasn’t new for my husband – he comes from a family of 6 kids and he’s been there – but I really didn’t know what to do. So all of those comments and messages from people REALLY helped a lot. I soon had a plan on things we could do to make the day bright all the same.

But I think God had another idea. And I think I have God to thank for what happened because, on that night, when I was feeling so low about all of this, I did what I usually do during my darkest times: I prayed. As I prayed, I acknowledged that Christmas is not all about gifts. And I understood that this was a good opportunity for my kids to appreciate that Christmas is so much more than about getting presents. But I said, you know, it would still be nice if they had more than one gift from Mom and Dad. And I just gave the whole mess over to God. I asked Him for help and guidance and just the strength to get through this.

After that, I felt a little better. One thing I kept thinking about that night, though, was the movie A Christmas Carol. The version with Patrick Stewart is my favorite, and it’s the one we own. I remembered in that movie how the Cratchit family enjoyed Christmas despite having nothing. The savvy Mrs. Cratchit still managed to get the family a goose for their Christmas dinner, and we at least had a nice ham for our Christmas dinner. The family was all together for Christmas and WE were all together for Christmas. The family sat together on Christmas Day feeling blessed to have each other and appreciating the little things. And we would do that, too! And at least the kids still got to make and decorate gingerbread men just like they do every Christmas. And we also had a Christmas breakfast of cinnamon rolls to look forward to with our usual movie of A Christmas Story. So some of the usual traditions were with us despite the lack of gifts.

But then something pretty awesome happened. And I’m starting to think that my saying “yes” to this very first thing is what allowed the other awesome things to come our way.

One of my fellow GSP authors saw my Facebook post and contacted me. He wanted to be a “secret Santa” and give us an Amazon gift certificate so we could get the kids another gift. At first, I was not sure about accepting his gift. Usually, I have this whole “We can take care of ourselves and we don’t NEED any help!” kinda attitude. I’m all for being self- sufficient! And, anyway, I didn’t post that on Facebook hoping someone would step up and help us out. I needed ideas on what to do! But I had a strong feeling that I should accept his gift. He wanted to do something nice for our kids. And I didn’t want to hurt his feelings by turning him away. So I accepted the gift from him and his wife. I used it to get the kids yet another thing they had on their Christmas list. (Thanks, Paul and Dorothy!)

And I think that by being open to someone’s kindness and generosity, it allowed for the other things to happen, too.

One of my sisters also heard about what happened. She knew I was really upset. So she and my sister-in-law (her partner) sent us a gift basket. I was so surprised when I opened the door and saw the delivery lady there with that gift. At first, I thought they had the wrong house! I even looked at the label, saw my name, and said, “That’s me.” Wow! I was really touched. The gift basket was filled with goodies, too. Turns out Jen knew about the surprise and made sure I was at the door to receive it. What a lovely gesture! I was so touched, I had tears in my eyes. (Thanks, Millie and Allison!)

Then we got another surprise gift. Soon enough, there was someone else at our door: One of my daughter’s best friends. She had a Christmas gift for my daughter – and a family gift for us, too! How nice! I was surprised and also very touched. I ran outside and, despite the rain, went to my friend who was in her car and hugged her, thanking her for the gift and wishing them all a Merry Christmas. (Thanks, Kim!)

Then another awesome thing happened, too. My husband was able to sell something and he now had a good amount of money available to buy our kids another Christmas present! He actually got them each 2 other gifts. And he was able to get me something, too! (I had already bought his gift earlier in the month.) So I was very happy that happened and what wonderful timing for it, too! Lots of stores were having sales on Christmas Eve, which made it lots easier for him to get stuff. (Thanks, Mr. Buyer!)

So Christmas was saved for us, after all. I consider this to be our “Christmas miracle.” It was certainly a time when my prayer was answered and we learned just how much we are loved by certain people in our lives. This has helped us to appreciate our friends and family all the more and be very grateful for when we are blessed in such an amazing way. I certainly feel that these things happened for a reason and I know that the true value of these blessings should be cherished and remembered. In the past, I have helped other families who have struggled with Christmas, and it was nice to be on the receiving end of that help this year. People really came through for us and we are grateful to them all. I am also grateful to another family friend who stopped by on Christmas Day with more gifts!

As to changes to our routine, I have decided to move forward in shopping for Christmas all year long, and not just in December. That way, we can avoid financial hits like we had this year. (I guess I shouldn’t be surprised we had TWO financial hits in December this year. This year has been awful!) Also, I am DEFINITELY going to make sure we have a savings account next year. As it is, we have no savings! But next year is THE year we create our savings so we can have something to fall back on in the event of another financial disruption.

This year’s Christmas was amazing and we were definitely blessed. I hope that by next Christmas, I can spread that sort of feeling to another family, too. Because it’s a great feeling!

Oh, what fun

My plan for today was to take my kids Christmas shopping. I figured we’d go to one store, they’d buy a gift for their dad, then we’d go home.

But something else entirely ended up happening!

As I was driving them through the terrible rainy weather we had today, Jen let me know she was not just planning to shop for her dad today. She also planned on shopping for her friends. I knew she wanted to shop for her friends this weekend, because the next week is her last week of school before Winter Break and she wanted time to be able to give her friends her gifts at school, but I had not expected it to take place on this trip.

Well, it did. And we ended up going to more than one store!

In fact, we ended up shopping at 4 different stores.

Jumping in and out of my car in the downpour then appearing at the store entrance drenched from the rain was a real hassle. But it’s not anything unexpected when it comes to Christmas shopping. For some reason, whenever we go Christmas shopping, it’s raining! (Which is why I prefer to do the bulk of my Christmas shopping online. No fun driving around in the rain or snow!) At one point, after I got into the car at store #3 once again soaked from the rain, I joked, "What does this remind me of? Oh, yeah. Christmas shopping LAST year!"

Then there was the nice little adventure of finding a place to park. That, too, was a hassle, but we got through it without incident.

Even so, we did have a nice time with their Christmas shopping. I had to remind Jen to keep track of her expenses so that she would not go broke before getting all the gifts she needed. I was also sure to remind her to look for deals on items and try to find something that seemed like the “right” gift for that person. She wanted to buy 2 gifts for 1 friend but I told her I didn’t think that was a good idea because it wasn’t fair if she got 1 friend 2 gifts and everybody else 1 gift.

As to Jesse, he was shopping for his dad as well as his teacher. Fortunately, with the little money he had saved up from collecting cans earlier this year, he was able to get both gifts with some money left over. He’ll be using that to buy a gift for his sister. (I consulted with each of them in private to figure out what they wanted to buy each other and plan to take care of that tomorrow.)

After we got home, they got busy wrapping the gifts and they now have them ready to take to school on Monday. Their gifts for their dad are wrapped and under our tree.

I may take them out shopping again tomorrow, but I also think it might be better if Jen goes with her dad tomorrow (since she still has to get her gift for me) and I just take Jesse to get his sister’s gift. At least that way, it’s only one stop for shopping – and this time for sure!

A chaotic Halloween

Earlier this year, I decided on one thing: I would embrace the spirit of Halloween all year long. That included indulging in all things horror and spooky. Halloween has been a favorite holiday of mine for a very long time – maybe because a day where the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest is something I can get behind! How cool is it that it's a day where the dead can freely roam the Earth and communicate with others? (Sidenote: I have definitely seen a lot more ghosts in my home than usual at this time of year.) I have been interested in ghosts, spooks, spirits and entities for a long time, and so of course I am obsessed with Halloween. It’s the one day of the year that I can let my “dark side” and “ghosty side” shine in all its glory!

And, you know, I thought all that obsession and planning was going to pay off when Halloween eventually came around. I thought it was gonna be a big event and that we would totally rock Halloween this year.

Well, that’s what I had hoped. It didn’t exactly turn out that way.

The first thing that went wrong is that we didn’t end up with a lot of money to spend on Halloween. Sure, I got Halloween decorations in early October, but not much was left for costumes, food and pumpkins. Not after spending a ton of money on both of our kids’ birthdays. Then our washing machine decided to conk out on us right before Halloween so we had to get a new one!

The second thing that went wrong is that I got sick. I came down with a nasty cold that had me out of commission for a while there. Fortunately, though, I was better by the time Halloween rolled around, but I was unable to leave the house for a couple of days because I was so sick so I was not able to get extra things we needed – like a couple of pumpkins! In fact, I had hoped we would’ve been able to go to Lone Pine Farm to get pumpkins, but Jesse was sick with a terrible cough for a couple of weeks. Then my husband was sick. Then I was sick!

So I had hoped that we could still get pumpkins on Halloween. But guess what? When my husband went to buy them today, they were ALL GONE! So were all the costumes. (Fortunately, we managed to get Jesse a costume earlier in the month.) So, we were pumpkin-less this year. Although I had a fake pumpkin outside (as part of the Halloween decorations) but that’s not the same thing!

And unfortunately, my daughter could not get a costume. So we brainstormed on a whole bunch of ideas for DIY costumes. (As a kid, I often wore a sheet to pass as a ghost on Halloween! One year, I wore my dad’s long-sleeve black shirt and, with my black jeans, I was a Jedi.) She finally settled on something but when her BFF came over on Halloween night, she helped my daughter to customize her costume and make it cooler. Yay!

And oh yeah, we still managed to get some candy. Kinda funny thing about that too: We didn’t get candy for trick-or-treaters until today! (Like I said, sickness had invaded my house this month. My daughter is the only one who didn’t get sick!) Luckily, candy is sold all year long, so my husband was able to score a couple of bags. Unfortunately, he didn’t get home before trick-or-treaters started knocking at our door, so, sadly, I had to turn some away, explaining we had no candy. Luckily, they didn’t egg our house! But I kept all the lights off until we had candy to give out. And, wow, we sure got a lot of trick-or treaters this year! We got trick-or-treaters of all ages, in fact. Some adults showed up costume-less asking for candy.

My husband took the kids and a friend trick-or-treating while I stayed behind to hand out the candy. I watched them heading off … into the rain. It was really pouring tonight. I was thankful for the rain, because we NEED it, but not so happy they were going out into it for trick-or-treating. Of course they returned home all soaking wet, but they had fun!

So despite the chaos of Halloween this year, we still managed to pull it off. 

I was so upset about the money situation because I know of people going ALL OUT on Halloween with decorations and costumes and everything, and we weren’t able to do that this year. We had to have Halloween on the cheap. But seeing all the pictures from friends and family who were able to throw money into celebrating Halloween and celebrating the day in all its glory got me so angry and upset that I was ready to abandon my Halloween fixation. I was ready to give up on Halloween. It’s like you have to be rich to have fun on Halloween! Ditto with horror, since that’s a part of Halloween.

But, later, I realized, you know, I love horror too much. I love Halloween too much. So what if I can't go all out on Halloween? Who says I have to? You don’t need to be rich in order to enjoy Halloween or even celebrate Halloween.

Screw that, anyway! I’m all about being frugal. And I love the whole DIY thing. And, on top of that, I’m not gonna give in to society trying to capitalize off of a holiday, like it always does! To enjoy Halloween, you don’t need to BUY EVERYTHING. You can’t put a price on Halloween. It should be enjoyed in its own way, no matter how rich or poor some people are.

So, yeah, I’m still gonna embrace Halloween like always. And I’ll indulge in horror, too. I don’t need to be rich to do that. And, anyway, despite the chaos of Halloween this year, we still had fun! 

The ups and downs of this year's 4th of July

Today we celebrated the 4^th of July – a holiday that became something of a challenge for many people here in Eugene. First there was the Civic Stadium fire that happened recently, which cast a sad pallor over the forthcoming holiday festivities. And maybe it was because of this fire or because of the drought we have been having which caused the City Council to ban fireworks in some areas of Eugene. Fortunately, my neighborhood is outside of this ban, but I felt bad for the people on Facebook complaining about how they had already gone out and bought fireworks before this ban was enacted. (They probably would have gone somewhere outside of the ban zone to enjoy their fireworks.)

Not only was this going on but there were a few people in my neighborhood watchgroup pleading to neighbors to not set off fireworks this year. Some shared stories of how the fireworks frightened their pets and others of how the fireworks affected their PTSD. In fact, some people posted signs in their front yards giving notice that a combat veteran lived there and to please respect their situation and not set off fireworks.

I understand their feelings and I get it that it bothers other animals, too. But I was irritated by this whole thing because the 4^th of July is only one day out of the year. (Someone else in the group suggested people keep their pets somewhere safe or wear noise-reducing headphones.)

You know, it used to be that the only thing people worried about during the 4^th of July was fires.

I still went out and bought fireworks. And we still set off our fireworks, today. The neighborhood watchgroup set up a “noise curfew” from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., so we went outside to do our fireworks shortly after 9.

But the day got off to a shaky start for some people – literally!

I was surprised to learn that an earthquake had occurred this morning in a nearby city (Springfield). It was registered at 4.2. Some people reported feeling it but we didn’t feel it at all. Well, Jesse and I were up, but we didn’t feel it. And Jennifer and hubby slept right through it! Our local friends were on Facebook posting about it. Unfortunately, one family we know really felt that earthquake. She said it felt like it was going off right under their house! Yikes! I am glad they were not hurt but really felt for them because it was a terrifying ordeal for them. (Like us, minus Jesse, they are from California, so they’re used to earthquakes. But we just don’t get many earthquakes here in this part of Pregon. Hasn’t been an earthquake here for some time! I didn’t even know there COULD be an earthquake here! I guess they can happen anywhere.)

Soo, yeah. We enjoyed fireworks today. Yay! We also baked cookies, ate hot dogs and pizza and had cupcakes.

Jennifer wanted to bring outside her pet rat, Salazar, to enjoy the show, too. I warned her the fireworks would scare him but she insisted he would be okay. 

Turns out he wasn’t. The poor thing got scared. Jen had to take him back inside.

 Here’s Jesse with sparklers.

And Jesse watching fireworks going off.

Jesse watching fireworks, Take 2.

Jennifer “watching fireworks.”

OK, no, really. She’s paying attention.

See? She’s being all patriotic and everything.

Jesse got a lesson from his dad on how to toss a lit firework.

Jesse with sparklers again.

Annnnd our water bucket caught on fire. I guess fire beats water!

Unfortunately, Jesse burned his hand this time. It was not a bad burn, though.

After the sparkler incident, Jesse was too nervous to enjoy the last sparkler. Being the good big sister that she is, Jennifer went out to help him feel better.

We had a fun 4^th of July. Unfortunately, we weren’t done with our fireworks until 10 minutes past the curfew. What can I say? We’re a bunch of rebels – and isn’t that how our country won its independence in the first place?