The hard part is we're only going to see a few of them this year. Our son Ryan's family in Oregon will be missed this year, it is just impossible to get there this Christmas, so we had to hurry up, buy the gifts, wrap them and ship them out UPS ($79 - Ouch!). For Corey and DIL Amanda up in New Jersey, we'll have to see when they might be able to come down to Virginia, Amanda's mom and dad live near us so we hope to "double up". Heather's family is going to be the "lucky" ones this year, we're driving down to their home in South Carolina for Christmas weekend.
We look forward to our upcoming fulltime lifestyle where we'll be able to split up our time and see the kids all over the country more often, we'll still have to rotate some of the holidays and birthdays, but that will be half the fun of it. And we won't have the daily grind of work to compete (get in the way) with. :c)
Now back to wrapping, where did I put the tape this time???
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Wow! Your Christmas season is almost the opposite of ours. We have gradually checked out of the material capitalistic spending at this time of year. For several years we have agreed with family that we'll not exchange presents. We're use to this now but then it can start to feel a bit empty as we haven't replaced the absence of store-bought gifts with something else.I've been wondering about donating to something in the name of a family member. Or buying savings bonds for the youngest ones. I don't have a good solution yet. We use to do what you are doing with the gift giving. The contrast between our two ways seems a bit odd to me at the moment. Sorry for going on and on but just reflecting. You're going to have a fantastic Christmas this year!
ReplyDeletedon't you hate when you can't find the tape, the scissors or the darn pen!!??
ReplyDeleteWe know how you feel about the distance between family members. All of Anneke's family is in the Netherlands. Our kids our in GA, FL and CO. This Christmas the one in CO will be spending Christmas in the Middle East and we likely will not be able to talk to her even by phone.
ReplyDeleteWe will be spending Christmas with our daughter and husband in FL this year.
We have come to avoid much of the shopping crisis by just getting some small funny stuff. We find they like cash just as well and can save it or get what they really want.
Based on our experience, when you go full time you will have to guard against getting so wrapped up in travel that you actually see your family less often. we have been guilty of that and now make sure we try and keep priorities straight.