Even Santa Needs To Know How to Budget

Greetings and Salutation--
Hey!!...Hope you are all well this Monday evening..Guess for the Month of December I need to change my opener to Seasons Greetings :)
   I was thinking and waiting for inspiration to hit me about what I wanted to blog about tonight. I was deciding on my musical selection--I chose Sally Harmon's Let It Snow (piano) and it hit me maybe I should speak about St Nick and what the Christmas Season means to me- and my wallet now that I am budget minded.. For those of you that have put aside money along and along...congrats! For those of you that wavered...fret not..there is always next year and I mean that with true sincerity. Start this month and I don't care how much it is. $5 is better than $0. It is my personal challenge to you to start saving a few dollars with regularity (automate it ) and let me know next year how much you managed.. This year I get to shop for my friends and family with ease as I have saved money for my shopping.. Guess the one thing I didn't plan for was saving up money to give to Santa for me :)
  Speaking of Santa-- don't let that old fart rob you blind this year.. I am always amazed at how much money people are willing to go into debit for the sake of their kids or loved ones when they have not saved appropriately.. I mean don't get me wrong-- I love gifts like anyone else.. Where I see the problem is when people jump off into the deep end of the debt pool and spend the first 3-6 months of the following year digging out what they spent for Christmas.. Why? So the kids will be happy? How about teaching them humility and understanding of the real way the world works.. In the real, grounded, responsible world you don't get what you haven't planned ahead for.. That this isn't the time of the year to get thousands of dollars worth of toys and gadgets..that is it a great time of the year to remember just how big the world is..That there are people that have nothing and something simple would mean more to them that any complicated gift you could give someone that "has it all".. Does going overboard in gifts prove I love you more? Does this prove your level of importance in my life? I just don't get it.. I am not advocating being scrooge himself.. I am, However, advocating simple common sense..Buy what you can afford.. Plan ahead and stay within your means..
  As you get out in the in suing crazy traffic and shop til you drop try and think what Christmas really means to you.. It is religious? It is commercial? It is spiritual? Is it all Bullshit? Is it what someone else has made you feel?  When you make your decision I encourage you to really think about why you feel the way you do about the holiday season.. Reevaluate your emotions assigned to this, for most, stressful time of the year..
  Most often I hear that people who express hate the holiday season do so because they don't stop and take the time to see all of the good things that the season can offer.. Maybe they tie up the holiday season with past wrongs or heartbreak..Maybe they see it all as a Hallmark moment and for as commercial as it has become.  I would encourage that person to see past all the commercial and emotional wrongs and find ways to make the holidays mean something new.. Help out a local family.. Do some volunteering for a local homeless shelter or soup kitchen. Visit kids or adults in the hospital who have no family.. Help those who have less or no opportunity to have a holiday season of their choosing . Visit a retirement home and visit with the residents that have no family.. Who better to be on the receiving end of a random act of kindness then a gift from someone that could use a reason to believe in the goodness of  human kind.. Giving is the best way to connect with that.. I think we should do this kind of thing year round but hey-- this is a stressful season for most and you have to start somewhere right?
  The season for me means a fresh start is just around the corner and God has granted me with another year to get it right and enjoy all that is before me..It is the best time to refill my hope bank.. Maybe you are not religious or spiritual.. So take that one word out of my previous sentence and make it yours.. I look forward to sending out Christmas cards and as I do I send love and thoughts to each person I send it to.. The season is about reflection and where am I versus where do I want to go.. Spending time with people means so much more to me than a fancy gift.. Time spent together and a simple, well spoken gift mean more than any fancy-smancy gift anyone could ever give me..
  Take this time to appreciate your family and all that you work for.. Not the spending of money you don't have.. Do things together as a family.. Any and all of the volunteering opportunities I mentioned above can include the whole family.. What a first hand, wonderful life learning experience you could have with yourself or your family.. Odds are the dolly you kid can't live without (which will get tossed into the pile of 20 less than a month after Christmas) would be gladly handed over to a more needy child or lonely senior citizen given that opportunity..See what you and your kids are made of this holiday season.. Try giving a gift this year that doesn't come with a bow but comes from the heart and changes someone's soul.. Just keep it in perspective and stop to enjoy the smell in the air and the energy in all that surrounds you

Tootles  :)
Heather