Getting that unexpected gift of money was amazing. I immediately came up with a quick little list of things I wanted to buy for my kids, but when I ran it all past RM, suddenly I realized....when? how? It might have been possible if I'd started a while back, but how could I possibly get what I needed to get in such a short amount of time at the craziest time of year. I realized that when we gave up buying presents, I had gained a tremendous amount of peace in my life at this time of year. I was suddenly not feeling so peaceful.
One of the stresses was I was trying to keep this a secret. In order to shop, someone was going to have to watch my kids. What would be my excuse? I was going to need a lot of time. How would I explain that? Finally, RM and I came to a conclusion. We wouldn't go out to any stores - it would be nuts to think of shopping now. We decided we'll still bless them, but we'll give them an "experience" instead that we wouldn't normally do, so we're going to head on in to Toronto for the day and we're going to take them to a neat show downtown. Whew! No more stress! Tickets have been bought!
Knowing that was the decision we were going to make changed everything. On Saturday, the busiest shopping day of the year, I was home helping my daughter set up for a little cookie exchange she had organized. It was wonderful to be available to her knowing I didn't have to leave her at home to do it all herself alone while watching a houseful of children as well. Once the girls arrived for the cookie exchange, I stayed in the kitchen decorating cookies with my younger children. That was so fun, seeing them enjoy the whole experience so much. If I had been gone shopping that day I would have missed out on that, too. They would have been stuck in front of a video or watched by brothers who have such a hard time with them sometimes. I would have been gone potentially for hours if I had bought all that I had planned initially.
The frenzy has permanently left our home. Instead it has been replaced with peace - the true meaning of Christ coming.
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