Christmas 2006

ready for next year

These are the only pictures this year to our humble, yet great, Christmas.

Christmas 2006

Our Christmas

This
season has come and gone leaving us with warm thoughts and good memories. We
had a more modest holiday this year, as I decided beforehand not to overindulge
in spending. I went shopping for my wife only, and left the rest to her, she
does a much better job of it than I do with my once a year binge shopping
sprees.

I
purchased one of Dave Ramsey’s packages for my oldest son, which consisted of a
book and a couple of videos to try and show him some of the better ways to
handle his money, something which I so obviously failed to teach him as he was
growing up. It’s the American way, debt, promissory notes, and credit cards.
It’s a mistake that I truly regret as I see him follow in my footsteps,
borrowing to obtain the things he wants now, and little or no savings. When I
talk to him about how we have to pay over time for what we are getting on
credit anyway, only triple or quadruple the price for the added interest, sort
of like a backward savings account, he understands that it would just be wiser
to save up the money for the purchase.

I
bought myself a pair of work boots to replace the two-year-old ones that were
beginning to let the water in. Funny how you only notice when it’s wintertime.
All of the items I purchased this year were bought with cash, as I was blessed with monetary gifts this year from three different people. I did buy gift envelopes
though, and gave most of the money away in lieu of extravagant gifts to my
immediate family members. This coupled with their smaller, more humble, presents
that their Mama bought them seemed more appropriate than my usual way of doing
things. She is so much better at getting them what they need instead of
what may be a passing fancy.

Say
what you want about monetary gifts being the lazy persons way of avoiding
having to put thought, effort, and time into gift buying, I battled internally
with my own thoughts about gift giving, and the fact that I had already
verbally communicated the need to having a frugal, scaled down Christmas. I
struggled with the idea of putting the cash toward my goal of savings and
getting out of debt, but the words kept coming back to haunt me, “Give, and
it shall be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together, and running over”.
So, I gave freely, with no stipulations on how they should use it. Mind you, I
put these money gifts under the tree, and I put bows on them, and I included them in
the gift packages that they already had, and then I took them out. I removed
the fancy bows, and I put them away. Not wanting this to be a part of
Christmas, or to take anything away from the customary gift exchange on
Christmas Eve, I gave them these gifts the next day, almost failing to give my
beautiful wife her envelope on Christmas day as it was almost midnight when I
handed it to her. Seems to me that there was a lot of thought and work going
into this. I’m not saying this is the best way, nor is it for everyone, but it
certainly relieved some of the pressure off of my family, as my oldest had
already expressed his desire to scale back this year on buying so many gifts,
and I echoed his protest, and fully intended to follow through with our
commitment to a smaller, simpler, and yes, cheaper, way of doing things.

The
actions that I took this year were reciprocal, and I relaxed in the knowledge
that poor people were not struggling to buy me several things, which they
really could not afford. I did not do the usual gift opening at the in-laws,
which requires pretty faces, and awkward hugs for sometimes novelty items that
are mostly useless, or hearty thanks for clothing that would fit Sasquatch.
They did send two gifts for me, both of which I’m wearing.

Kay
cooked a wonderful Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. My oldest and his
family came over and we enjoyed the opening of a few gifts for his babies, and
one each between us. My Mama was here,
and my benevolent sister Lotus, and in addition to her other gifts, she brought
us some really nice curtains which flatter my office much more than the ones
that I already had, but she had to stay late to sew some modifications on the
back to fit the curtain rod. With Lydia’s help from a well timed phone call,
the sewing machine that we thought was useless all these years was fixed
(another impulse buy), that was her gift to us, and the curtains are up, and
nice, if I may say so myself. There are no pictures this year, as I took a
total turnaround from the usual, and decided to forego the amateur photography
and backside profiles of gift giving, so, you folks have something to be
thankful for also.

http://tejasmidget.multiply.com/photos/album/131
We
have much to be thankful for, and we are blessed to have family that we love,
and we know what the true meaning of traditional Christmas is, it is about
caring. This is our Christmas.

May
God bless you all with a healthy and prosperous new year.

what is, isn't

only old shot i could find on my hard drive.

remember these urns? they used to sit atop the Eola Hotel for the last 80 years or so. until today. we chopped them down like trees because they were deteriorating so badly they were becoming a hazard. contractors bid for removal; $3,500. our bid; sledgehammers and five gallon buckets. taking down six foot tall 1,500 lb urns on the coldest day we've had so far? priceless. i saved these pieces for i-don't-know-what-yet. sorry folks for no demolition pictures, i was out on a ledge. :o)

weekend warrior

this revamped valance and crown shelf for what-nots will make chas bashful about his. he will now have to start all over with his entire kitchen.

always looking for something to do, ♪♫♪♫ baby, it's cold outside ♪♫♪♫