A better Christmas for 2016

The year 2016 has certainly been a challenge. There have been so many ups and downs this year. But I am grateful that at least ONE thing went right this year: My quest to ensure that my kids had a better Christmas gift experience compared to last year.

Last year, three days before Christmas, we ran into a financial hurdle that took all the money we had set aside to buy our kids Christmas presents. I blogged about that here. I also blogged about our “Christmas miracle” that happened as a result of it. Thanks to that miracle, we had some extra gifts to give to the kids for Christmas last year – instead of just the one I had already gotten for them. Here is the pic of our tree with the extra gifts:

I am extremely grateful to the people who helped us give our kids a nice Christmas last year, but even so, I had vowed to take matters into my own hands this year, and that’s exactly what I did. And I am happy that I was able to pull it off, too!

So what did I do? I shopped for my kids’ Christmas gifts all year long. My strategy was to buy each of them a Christmas gift for every month of the year, and it worked! (I will share that experience in a blog post real soon.) This morning, my kids opened their 12 Christmas presents. Yep, they had twelve. One gift for every month of the year. Yay! We did it! Woo-hoo!

Here is the picture of our tree with this year’s gifts – as well as extra gifts by the stockings! There are also other gifts we received from friends and family.

I am just so happy that I was able to do that sort of thing for them this year. I am not sure if this will be “our thing” now. I need to think more on that.

The reason why I am not sure if I want to do this again is because I don’t want my kids to think that Christmas is all about gifts or even having lots of gifts. Mostly, I want them to see Christmas as a time of gathering with your family and loved ones and sharing the joy of the holiday season. Christmas is a time for giving, sharing the joy of being with the people you love, and helping those who are less fortunate. I don’t want my kids to be materialistic or expect lots of presents every single Christmas. So I have to think more on this before doing it again.

Also, I would rather give them EXPERIENCES instead of gifts. Like taking them somewhere fun or doing something special together. I want to give my kids memories, not stuff.

So we’ll see what happens. Maybe when Jesse is a little older he will appreciate Christmas experiences more than Christmas gifts.

We had a really nice Christmas Eve yesterday and also a very nice Christmas morning today. As usual, I was the first one awake this morning. I spent the quiet time taking pictures, enjoying my coffee and playing a game on my phone. I also logged in at Facebook to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Then Jesse woke up and he woke up his dad and Jennifer. With A Christmas Story on TV and both adults armed with coffee, it was time for all of us to open our gifts. Yep, we went right to the gifts instead of the stockings! LOL It was Jen’s turn to be Santa this year so she wore the Santa hat. There was much surprise and excitement over the gifts as everybody opened them. One of the things Jen got was a Supernatural Funko POP Sam and Dean action figure. Originally, I was just going to get her Sam, but then I realized that the brothers need to be together, so I got her Dean as well. She held up the box containing Sam and said, “I got a Sam!” Jesse got the Impala car model. When Jen saw that, her face lit up and she said, “You got the Impala!” Jen also got the movie Thirteen Ghosts and she was REALLY happy about that. She said she’s been asking for it for years! Well, I’m glad we finally got it for her. One of the things Jesse got was art supplies and he opened the paint set and painted a couple of pictures. The one at the top of this post is one of the pictures he painted. Jen was also happy with the sketchbook she got and Jesse immediately threw on his new Spiderman PJs. He has been spending the day playing with all of his Christmas presents.  Both kids were really happy with all of their gifts.

As for me, there was a BIG box wrapped and I was hoping it was a new printer. And it was! Yay! Here is a pic of me with that big wrapped box:

I also got a snow globe, candle with a Christmas tree scent, Amazon gift card, a puppet craft that Jesse made for me, a T-shirt and a stress toy.

I LOVE the T-shirt! It was a gift that Jen got me. Here is a pic of it:

  

Ah, she knows me so well. LOL I don’t like drama!

After all the gifts, I made breakfast. It was cinnamon rolls, bacon, and, for me and my husband, eggs in a basket. We all sat at the table enjoying our Christmas breakfast and it was a really nice time.

Then some of us went back to sleep! LOL Jesse was awake, of course, to play with all his new toys. I guess he was too excited to sleep because he also got a new bike.

Christmas this year was just awesome. It has been a really great day and I am glad we were able to give the kids stuff they wanted for Christmas this year. Of course, I had been a little sad because I missed my parents and was thinking about them a lot. (I have been thinking about them quite a bit lately.) I am glad I was able to survive the holidays without an emotional breakdown like I had that one year when I just cried for days when Christmas after my mother’s death came around. This year was better. I was even strong enough this year to do the cookie run! Still, I was thinking about both of my parents a lot and missing them. But I am sure they were there for all of us in spirit on Christmas Day.  

Dream creepiness

On weekday mornings, when I'm up and getting Jennifer ready for school, I leave the TV on the channel that airs Good Morning America. I watch that show almost every day. Sometimes during the show, the local news comes on. It also comes on before GMA.

After I showered and got dressed this morning, I sat on the couch to tie my shoes, watching the local news that comes on before GMA. At one point, I looked up to see a story of a local man being charged with sexual assault. Three women have testified against him in the case. He is also accused of murdering someone.

When I saw this man's face, my heart froze and a shudder ran down my spine.

After the alarm went off this morning, I fell back asleep for about a half hour and had a dream. For some reason or another, I was in the carport and I was totally nude! I was trying to hide the fact that I wasn't wearing anything, ducking against the wall as several cars drove by out on the street. (Sometimes, I really hate living on a busy street.) Anyway, at one point, I heard music playing, then looked up to see this man come into the carport. He was bald and wearing black sunglasses. He was dancing as he approached me then he grabbed my arms and pulled me up. He tried to rape me and I was wriggling from his arms and screaming, "No! No!"

That scared me so bad, I woke up. And you know what scared me even more?

That man I saw on the news was the SAME MAN in my dream! EEK!! He wasn't wearing sunglasses during the trial, of course. But he had the same exact kind of head and shoulder outline. And later, after I got a newspaper, I saw his picture in the newspaper. All I had to do was put those same black sunglasses on his face and that was enough to make me shudder and nervously pace around in the kitchen until I finally gave myself a mental shake of the shoulders and screamed at myself with my internal voice, "GET A GRIP!"

It was only a dream. It wasn't real. I hate having violent dreams like that. But what bothered me the most was that I had that dream and I ended up seeing that same exact face on the news shortly after I awoke! GAH!

It's not uncommon for weird things to happen in our dreams. I mean, anything can happen. After all, it IS the dream state! But sometimes, we can only wonder if there is something more about dreams than just our imagination. Some people believe that we can have out-of-body experiences in our dreams. Some believe that we can perform astral travel while we dream. And then, of course, there are the dreams we have in which departed loved ones have visited us. (Read an article I did about this for Shadowlands: Ghost Dreams: The Good and Bad of Ghostly Visitations in Our Sleep)

And, of course, people who know me or have read Martha Jette's book, Glimpses 2: It could happen to you, are aware of my dream experiences with a man named Jonathan.

All kinds of bizarre and creepy things can happen in our dreams...

This also reminds me of something I said in an email I sent to my sister recently:

Want to hear something creepy? I don't know if you're familiar with the book In Cold Blood, but it is based on a true story. Two drifters killed these parents and two of their 4 children in Kansas. Anyway, in the book, one woman interviewed said she had this dream of the girl, Nancy (age 16), and she heard her saying, "No! No! Please! No!" And I found out later that that is exactly what the girl said right before she was murdered!! Creepier still: Another woman who knew the mother saw her in a dream and she was saying, "There is nothing worse than being murdered."

This makes me wonder if there are any books containing stories of dream oddities or how someone's dream came true or something like that. I am aware of Sylvia Browne's Book of Dreams, but I am curious if there are similar books with stories like that. Might be something interesting to read. If not a little creepy.