Every year when I was a kid, Christmas was awesome.  We couldn’t wait till the morning when we could rip into those packages under the tree and be surprise at what mom and dad and santa bought us.  We would stay up as late as we could handle and still be up by 5am ready to go. We would try to sneak a peak into everything because patience at that time had not been learned (jury still out on that one for me). Waiting was unbearable and we thought we had it tough.

Then I became a mom. 

Christmas seems almost a chore any more and I hate that.  Have to fight people in the stores to make sure you make that Christmas morning a hit with the kids by getting them exactly what they wished for, even though you told them fat chance.  The surprise on their faces is always a good reward for the exhausting weeks before Christmas making sure things are in place. Its just that I feel I had so much more respect for my things than my kids.  I really try hard to make sure they understand giving is a good thing and take care of your things cause there are kids much less fortunate. It seems it is lost on them. Is this bad parenting??? I thought I was doing a good job.

This year instead of a billion presents under the tree for them to rip through and not remember the last package they just opened. I have opted to get them 2 very nice gifts each.  Something that they will benefit from at their current ages (11 and 8). My daughter (11) is very musically inclined and has been learning piano and has been dying to have a keyboard. So I have purchased a ver nice one with a stand and sheet music and the works. My son however wants everything. He has only picked out a few nice things and I am still stumped on what exactly to get him.

I am hoping this will give them insight on caring for what they receive and taking care of them.

I guess I would really like to get back to that warm feeling at Christmas but is that part of the illusion that we offer our kids so that the real world problems they will have to face someday are just a bit further away?

Any suggestions on a non-musically inclined 8 year old boy?? Still dunno what to get that boy!

Thanks for listening