My husband and I had this novel idea to spend our Christmas funds on experiences for the kids. So instead of buying a bunch of clothes and toys, we would put the money toward activities they want to do like a water park, ninja course, or event.
We started early and got in on some discount options for Great Wolf Lodge, the Kids Obstacle Challenge, and an overnight stay in Grapevine for a little “Christmas capital of Texas” fun.
Happy with ourselves for making a plan to focus less on “stuff” and more on memories, we were lulled into a false sense of success. We should have saved our pat on the back for after Christmas and only AFTER we had finished the job of self restraint. Because you see, we totally failed.
This is a picture of what was supposed to be our “experience only” Christmas tree. Yeah. That’s right. Those are gifts. Things. Presents. STUFF! The very stuff we said we weren’t going to get.
To be fair-a few of these are gifts from other people. And a few are just decoy presents that have the experience information wrapped in a box. But there are WAY too many presents under that tree for two people who said “let’s not do so many presents this year.”
I suppose we should have known better. My husband and I love Christmas presents. We were done for.
And we really do LOVE Christmas presents. We love receiving them. We love giving them.
We love watching the kids run to the tree to see if there are more day after day.
We love when they shake them and try to identify what’s inside.
We love when they guess socks to any package that comes from a grandparent and toss it back into the pile. (By the way kids-grandparents give the best socks and when you’re older you’ll appreciate that all the more.)
We love watching the wrapping paper fly as they tear them open like Tasmanian Devils.
We love how they open all of them. You know an hour after presents are over there is just a sea of torn up packaging and a trail of toys that leads directly to each one of the kids. Just playing with them all day.
We love giving some of those experience gifts early so we can take them to enjoy and explore new places in a new state. Making new family traditions.
When it is all said and done we probably shouldn’t beat ourselves up too much. The holidays are stressful enough without the guilt of overindulging our kids.
And truth be told we did still give the gift of experiences this year. They got to experience Christmas magic and joy in a way that only kids can. And we got to experience that through them.
Putting out some reindeer food on Christmas Eve.
AND we got presents!
~That’s all for today from This Girl Here.