Last year I had a dream come true.
But, before I get to that I have to tell you a little story about 2 years ago when my dream DID NOT come true. We were planning a trip to Idaho to visit Hotsauce's brother and sisters and their families. Like always, we had not planned for the vacation and had nothing saved up. So we had a two week long garage sale... well over the course of two weeks we had a garage sale from Thursday to Saturday.
I had posted on Facebook that we were having a sale and a friend of ours said that she had a bunch of stuff that she wanted to get rid of ... if we would pick it up we could have it for the sale. I was giddy. She was right, she had a ton of stuff on her porch.
One item was a 6 foot pre-lit Christmas tree. The only problem with it was that half the lights no longer worked. As you can imagine it didn't sell. When Christmas rolled around we didn't have a tree of our own and didn't have the money to buy a new one. Oh, how I looked on Craigslist and everywhere I could think of for a 9 foot tree. There were nonein my price range for free.
So S.O.S., Hotsauce and I got out the 6 foot tree and sat on the floor and cut the broken lights off the old tree. And my holiday cheer was more like a pre-holiday melt down. Imagine, if you will, a grown woman crying as she violently rips lights off of a tree. I'm pretty sure that I snapped once or twice at my beloved.
After we put the tree up it looked incredibly silly with four feet of space between the top of the tree and the ceiling. It was not my idea of the perfect Christmas tree. In fact, I imagined it more like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. Hotsauce ended up building me a 2 foot stand to place the tree on and I covered it with old lace curtains. By the time I wrapped a few presents the stand was covered and I was thankful that wobbly little Mo-Mo couldn't reach the ornaments on the bottom branches.
You may see in this picture "of the tree" that the top of Chubba's head is where the bottom of the tree meets the stand. You may also see in this picture that Lumpy's past head injuries cause him to growl inexplicably.
Silently I was disappointed in the tree.
Last year though we went to a Christmas tree farm. And for the first time since I was a young girl I got a real live pine smelling tree. It was 9 feet tall and fit perfectly in our bay window. I was thrilled. No, I was thrilledsauce.
But, apparently not thrilled enough to take a picture of the entire tree and just a few snapshots of the kids decorating it. Actually, Nana S. took a few pictures of us decorating it.
Anyway it was my perfect Christmas tree. I do believe that I may have silently cried one night after everyone was in bed. I was in lurvesauce.
Now as we prepare for Christmas this year there has been much discussion about the Christmas tree. In the beginning of the budget discussions this was an item that Hotsauce promised that we would save for. I would have my perfect tree and we would still pay the bills.
Last night at FPU we watched the video about paying off debt with gazelle type intensity. I watched as the CHEEETAH raced after the gazelle and came up emptyhanded mouthed. I learned that the cheetah only catches the gazelle 1 out of 19 times... and thought to myself I am not going to be that one!
Can you imagine a gazelle running with a 9 foot Christmas tree dragging behind it? Wonder which gazelle the cheetah would pick as its next victim?
So the obvious choice is to skip the wonderful nice smelling tree and haul the 6 foot tree out of the storage closet and take another look at the picture above. I don't have pictures of Christmas trees because that's not what's really important to me. Those five silly faces are what I took a picture of ... because that's where my heart really is.
I will sing "O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree..
And it will be true. Because O Christmas tree tis free and my focus is renewed! I am excited to put that money towards a snowball and skip the tree chopping!
How's your Christmas shaping up? What will you be skipping on and what (if anything) is non-negotiable?
But, before I get to that I have to tell you a little story about 2 years ago when my dream DID NOT come true. We were planning a trip to Idaho to visit Hotsauce's brother and sisters and their families. Like always, we had not planned for the vacation and had nothing saved up. So we had a two week long garage sale... well over the course of two weeks we had a garage sale from Thursday to Saturday.
I had posted on Facebook that we were having a sale and a friend of ours said that she had a bunch of stuff that she wanted to get rid of ... if we would pick it up we could have it for the sale. I was giddy. She was right, she had a ton of stuff on her porch.
One item was a 6 foot pre-lit Christmas tree. The only problem with it was that half the lights no longer worked. As you can imagine it didn't sell. When Christmas rolled around we didn't have a tree of our own and didn't have the money to buy a new one. Oh, how I looked on Craigslist and everywhere I could think of for a 9 foot tree. There were none
So S.O.S., Hotsauce and I got out the 6 foot tree and sat on the floor and cut the broken lights off the old tree. And my holiday cheer was more like a pre-holiday melt down. Imagine, if you will, a grown woman crying as she violently rips lights off of a tree. I'm pretty sure that I snapped once or twice at my beloved.
After we put the tree up it looked incredibly silly with four feet of space between the top of the tree and the ceiling. It was not my idea of the perfect Christmas tree. In fact, I imagined it more like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. Hotsauce ended up building me a 2 foot stand to place the tree on and I covered it with old lace curtains. By the time I wrapped a few presents the stand was covered and I was thankful that wobbly little Mo-Mo couldn't reach the ornaments on the bottom branches.
Silently I was disappointed in the tree.
Last year though we went to a Christmas tree farm. And for the first time since I was a young girl I got a real live pine smelling tree. It was 9 feet tall and fit perfectly in our bay window. I was thrilled. No, I was thrilledsauce.
But, apparently not thrilled enough to take a picture of the entire tree and just a few snapshots of the kids decorating it. Actually, Nana S. took a few pictures of us decorating it.
Anyway it was my perfect Christmas tree. I do believe that I may have silently cried one night after everyone was in bed. I was in lurvesauce.
Now as we prepare for Christmas this year there has been much discussion about the Christmas tree. In the beginning of the budget discussions this was an item that Hotsauce promised that we would save for. I would have my perfect tree and we would still pay the bills.
Last night at FPU we watched the video about paying off debt with gazelle type intensity. I watched as the CHEEETAH raced after the gazelle and came up empty
Can you imagine a gazelle running with a 9 foot Christmas tree dragging behind it? Wonder which gazelle the cheetah would pick as its next victim?
So the obvious choice is to skip the wonderful nice smelling tree and haul the 6 foot tree out of the storage closet and take another look at the picture above. I don't have pictures of Christmas trees because that's not what's really important to me. Those five silly faces are what I took a picture of ... because that's where my heart really is.
I will sing "O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree..
O
Christmas
tree,
O
Christmas
tree,
Much pleasure doth thou bring me!
For every year the Christmas tree,
Brings to us all both joy and glee.
Much pleasure doth thou bring me!
For every year the Christmas tree,
Brings to us all both joy and glee.
And it will be true. Because O Christmas tree tis free and my focus is renewed! I am excited to put that money towards a snowball and skip the tree chopping!
How's your Christmas shaping up? What will you be skipping on and what (if anything) is non-negotiable?
It's funny that you posted about Christmas. Before David left on a business trip to CA we had a short, but much needed Christmas talk. You see last year I went a bit overboard, not into debt, thank The Lord. But I was having a rough time telling myself when enough was enough. You see I love, no lovesauce giving gifts! So if you tell me what you're into, or something that you enjoy, every time I see that thing, in a store or (mostly) online if it wasn't too much I'd get it for you out of the blue (even you just mentioning a desire for a real tree made me want to cut a check out for you to be able to have one. Lol!!). Now my husband is a giver as well, so that isn't the problem... The problem came when I would hide my gift purchases from him because of who knows why. It never caused any strife in my marriage, but I always had this cloud of shame over me... Like I had this deep dark secret, and I was afraid to tell the man that I love about it. That was what got me. I've recently admitted that to him and have asked for his help this year with gifts so I don't go overboard again. My kids don't need as much junk as they got last year thanks to me! :0( so with his help, and by the grace of God. We'll get through this Christmas without filling another bin of useless toys. Proud of you guys!!!
ReplyDeleteTypically I would jokingly reply that I can give you our address to send that check... but since I don't want to put a stumbling block in front of you I won't! Besides that I can think of other things I would spend that money on instead of a Christmas tree. Or at least things I should spend that money on instead of a tree!
DeleteI love how God is teaching you to trust your husband. Christmas is a time when I have learned to trust Hotsauce's wisdom, though it's really really really hard for me! I love gift giving and gift receiving... but knowing when to say when is a gift in itself!