Broke-ass Christmas

This year we. Are. Broke. Well, not so broke that we couldn't buy gifts but we're on a serious budget. NOTE if anyone is getting out of the military soon PLAN AHEAD we got by just fine but took a huge income hit, especially since I just had given birth to Reef and wasn't working when we left the Army.

Now, I don't care about being broke. I grew up poor. We never had big Christmases but it didn't matter. Christmas is about family and community, pure and simple. There were many Christmases without a tree and small gifts but I don't remember ever "feeling" broke or let down. I remember going to Christmas Eve Mass and singing all the songs I love, driving around different neighborhoods and being wowed by the light shows, taking gifts my mother collected from the community to people much poorer than us and I'll never forget the parents faces and the hugs we shared- this is what Christmas means to me, it's completely magical. Love and giving. I hope to instill these values in my son.

This year will be quite a change.

We've started a new adventure in Texas and are living with my in-laws who, I'm sooooo lucky to say, are amazing and we get along fabulously. They're big on Christmas....like, they buy huge gifts HUGE. I'm not complaining, I enjoy nice things and being pampered but my husband is stressing about not getting people expensive gifts. He's such a Taurus. I repeat to him that it's the thoughtfulness of the gifts, it's the hug that it's delivered with that matters...not the price.

Maybe I don't care enough, who knows.

All I know is I have my family, I was able to use miles to fly my sister home to my parents, and I've got cocoa in the pantry.

Xo
J