Gifts

I was idly scrolling through FB the other day (because that was something I could do while sitting on the couch), I came across someone's post where they said that they were going to be doing a more modest Christmas this year and then laid out what they were doing. I was a little undone for a moment because what was described was our typical Christmas... Christmas pajamas, a find gift, a book, and something useful (generally.) It has never been set in stone, but that was kind of the broad outline. By the time you add in gifts from siblings times twelve, well, no one was wanting for gifts.

We will be having a more modest Christmas this year. While I did buy some new things, much has been thrifted or made. In all honesty, this is actually not different from past years, I've just gathered fewer gifts per person.

In talking with my children, they're actually okay with this. Their lists were very modest and I've had more questions about who will be here for the holiday and what we'll be eating. Presents have never been the entire focus of the day. They're more what we do in between eating food.

Once again, this is a benefit to a large family. Even if everyone has only a couple of gifts to open, with 17 people here on Christmas morning, that is still a minimum of 34 gifts under the tree. And we tend to open slowly, one gift at a time, so we usually take at least until lunch to get to them all. 

I'm not sure what my point really is here's a. While I have not put as much time and energy into gifts this year, I have enough and compared to other years it was pretty stress free. I did 95% of my shopping locally and only resorted to Amazon for the few things I missed out on because I was shopping relatively late. I feel good about that. Amazon, while convenient, does fill me with vague guilt. Maybe what I'm realizing is that I made it all into a bigger deal than it ever needed to be.