Give us your dough, it's Christmas YO!

"Give us your dough, it's Christmas YO!" That is the chorus to "Christmas Is" by Run. D.M.C.-a rap song on a Christmas CD I bought one year. Could you imagine if stores played that? Hahaha. We are on a tight budget this Christmas so I can't spend $2,300 on my family of 6 like I wanted too. Seriously. I added it up.  How ridiculous is that? Mind you, that was just on me, Jesse, and our kids-no one else!! I whittled it down to what our family can manage and realized I needed a serious reality check. I needed to start counting my MANY blessings instead of focusing on material things I don't need. It's so easy to forget that most of the world lives on $2 a day! We are SO blessed in this country. I'm SO blessed! Even if I could only spend $50 this Christmas it would be more extravagant than half the world! (Actually, $50 is probably a lot to someone reading this and they wish they even had that to spend comfortably!) Most of us struggle with being too fat because we have too much food, we have to donate bags of stuff every year to make room for all the new clothes and junk we've accumulated since the last time we dropped it all off, and if we can't pay a bill its usually because we were living beyond our means anyway. Most of our kids have too many toys that it overflows and clutters up our house! In fact, many of our problems in the West are due to having too much. (If you want to be really convicted and never worry about buying anything ever again, listen to some of Francis Chan's sermons!)
But I also really want Christmas to be fun and festive. It's Jesus' birthday! I make my kids' birthdays so festive, how much more my Lord's! There is reason to celebrate on this special day! Presents are a fun part of Christmas and I want to make memories for my children and see their little faces light up on Christmas morning. BUT there are many other things to do to make the season exciting, fun and Christ centered. Starting December 1st, I'm going to do a post or two of "traditions" we do in our house to make Christmas exciting and special and not about the gifts but about the amazing GIVER we celebrate.

And please, please, please share some of yours! I'm always looking for new ones!!