Make it through the Hard Times: Christmas Paid for by Dec. 24

Make it Through the HARD TIMES…Christmas paid by December 25^th

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How to have Christmas paid by December 25^th

If there were a way you could have the best Christmas ever and paid for by December 25, you’d want to know about it wouldn’t you?

You may! Here’s how!

DO things for people instead of BUYING things for them.

Our New Year’s Resolution (early) in this belt tightening economy was to do that. Christmas’ past I’ve dreaded January’s paying-the-piper! The gold, or overlapping orange circles. But we had ‘plastic surgery’ (cut up all credit cards but one (ID) American Express Gold); we’re free to be wondrously creative.

I asked my grown children what one tangible/intangible thing they would like to inherit (house excluded).

Here’s our sample list:

TANGIBLE: (Grown Children). (If the item won’t go under the tree, you could write, “This Note entitles you to…”):

* Blue Willow Dishes

* Silverware

* Stemware

* Lazy Susan

* Stereos

* Favorite Albums

* Certain Book Cases

* Linen table clothes

* Handmade quilts

* Ancestor pictures

* Patio furniture

* Paintings

* Candle holders/Centerpieces

* Tools-Look through your things-see what you can give NOW.

* Do the Christmas Cookies/Cooking for all! (Give me a Break!)

Put a Hand Written note into a beautifully wrapped box, place it on a hanky, (no ties), drawer pot-pourri, silk square, or certificates that you can make on your computer for each gift: HAVE FUN!!

INTANGIBLE: (Grown Children) (This note entitles you to…):

* Baby sitting

* Altering clothes

* Copying off family recipes (Exactly how to-not a ‘pinch of this and a dab of that’)

* (Quit writing personal stories about them unless I change the names, ages, sex and

dates. Ask! And give LOVE! HOPE and FAITH!

I was delighted and surprised to find it was DO-able and really rather simple. We had extra silver, dishes, stereo’s etc. (No, Dee, you can’t have my fur, YET!).

ELDERLY PARENTS AND FRIENDS: (This note entitles you to…):

* Come Visit Me

* Help me go through my memorabilia, ASK!

* Go through and clean closets/boxes with me. (It’s now or later)

* Help me pick out my glasses

* Listen to me without advising

* Bring the Grandchildren

* Don’t stay too long, and give LOVE

* Eat my food

* Take me out to eat

* Take me to Wal-Mart

GRANDCHILDREN: (This note entitles you to…):

* Three games of ‘Hide n Seek’

* One giggle time

* One game of miniature golf with us

* Game with 3 of their friends

* Ice-skating

* Take them to Chucky Cheese

* Take them to Birmingham Zoo

* ‘Read-a-story’ until YOU-little one gets tired (Be rested up for this one!) ASK! And

Give LOVE! FAITH and HOPE!

* Granddad’s flashlight

* Granddad’s hammer

* Granddad’s tools

* Teach them how to make two-tin-cans-and-a-string phone-talk with them on it

Give them positive messages, “Hello, favorite grandson. I heard you got a ‘smiley-

face’ on your work”.

* Write a Grandchildren’s newsletter (on you computer) or have it typed and copied

on wild copy paper. GO WILD! Be Innovative!

Tell the stories of the day they were born. Cute (not so cute) sayings they have said, great things they have done…(learned to tie their shoes 12 weeks younger than their Dad did, learned to ride their bike way before their Dad did-he was six and you were only five.) What you did as a child when you were their age, where you lived, what the house looked like you pets, your toys, and the type of games you played. Tell them stories about his Mom and Dad, funny things they did or said, (Like, “What did you do today?” “They told me not to tell!”)

THE FUTURE=TEEN AGERS, FAMILY AND FRIENDS: ASK! GIVE & LOVE

* The biggie: Ask Questions; LISTEN with your heart

* Let them use YOUR car for a special date

* Ask and go to their event. Listen between the lines

* Remove the big three from your vocabulary…”On my honor, I promise not to Criticize,

Condemn, or Complain for one week, month, year (?)” (Get real!) Let hair grow, come off,

change colors etc.

* Ask them for a favor-use their car for you special event

* Ask their opinion on your business dealings, Try it!

* Get them to go shopping with you-for YOUR clothes

* Take their advise with faith, hope and LOVE! (I haven’t figured out how to put this under the

tree. After all, you have some responsibility, TOO! As soon as you figure it out, please let me

know).

The next hardest ones; your own younger ones:

* Let them tell you or make a list and promise (Santa) can get only ONE of the items.

ASK! GIVE, LOVE, FAITH and HOPE!

(One year we couldn’t find out what one of ours wanted. It turns out they had told Santa at the mall, but never had told us. That child was not a happy-camper with that years gifts).

* (Please, I’d like your input with these. May I quote you?)

* Get new items at Garage/Estate sales all year. Put away for the holiday season. What’s

couldn’t care less when/if it’s something they want.

* Let them take toys to people who don’t have much or anything

* Help bake Christmas cookies. (It only takes twice as long).

* Let your work-a-holic-mind devise more satisfying ideas

Don’t forget the Animals. If you have a tree or bush nearby, pop and string popcorn and cranberries and decorate the bush. Watch the birdies love you for it. Maybe even a squirrel.

In this “Christmas paid by 12/25” project, if your gift is a favorite treasure, that’s even better. Isn’t that what a gift is.

(I asked for-TIME-my pictures to be put in photo carousal).

Yes, THIS year, we may find a new meaning to gifts-a gift of ourselves our Faith, Hope, and Love. The New International Version Bible says in I Cor. 13:13, “But the greatest of these is LOVE”. Love given-What goes around comes around.

It just might be the best year yet.

It’s POSSIBLE!