Like most American families we’ve had our years of plenty and we’ve had our share of Hard Candy Christmases. This year we were somewhere in the middle. We had a nice budget for each kid, but I wanted our gifts this year to focus on teaching them skills or to fill a need. I didn’t want to give them more reason to stay inside or to clutter their room with more junk.
My kids are avid readers of this blog, so I can’t give away too many secrets. Their eyes are probably bugging out of their heads at the major hints they’ve just read.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with wanting that new gaming console, or an awesome new toy. I don’t feel guilty for giving them such things. I love to spoil my kids as often as I can. Considering that my kids aren’t total brats, it makes it totally worthwhile. They have appreciated every gift they’ve been given.
Leon and I are driving our family in a new direction. In the last year we’ve made some different choices over our norm. Instead of going to see a movie, we’ve gone roller skating. I could use my employee discount and we could stay at a hotel for vacation. Instead we chose to pack up all our gear and go camping.
As we’ve joined Z.A.S. we’ve been thinking about our family goals more. It definitely had an impact on our gift choices this year. We agree that we want our children to learn to live with less now so that it won’t be as hard on them should they ever have to leave everything behind. We want our family to be less attached to material things. We also want them to be prepared for anything.
So this year every gift we bought the kids had a purpose. Knowing my kids, their minds are going to be blown.