December's here!

I can't believe its December already, where did the time go? I can't get myself to think about Christmas yet and its exactly 3 weeks from today! Luckily, we elected to have a simple Christmas this year and it takes a lot of pressure and stress off everyone in our families. On Chad's side we are drawing names between the siblings/spouses/girlfriends, as we are growing and its hard to buy for everyone, especially in this tough economy. On my side we are getting together before Christmas and going out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory as a family and going bowling afterwards, simple and fun! No gifts will be exchanged except for our kids, my brothers and I just decided we are too old to need gifts anymore. Even Chad andI don't exchange gifts, we make sure everyone is taken care of first and then if there is money left over we'll buy ourselves something nice, but its much more fun to give than to receive! Isn't that the way it should be? I recently saw a commercial on tv about a little girl asking her Dad about the chaos and stress over Christmas present buying and such and how we've trully lost the real meaning of Christmas! Don't get me wrong, we'll definetly be spoiling our kids this year, we are lucky to be able to do that and love every minute of it! I just think as you get older, you don't need the gifts and really start to appreciate just time with the family and getting to see your children get so excited about Santa and gifts!! I can't tell you how incredibly blessed I feel to be able to spend holidays with the family and how lucky we are to be able to have what we have! In the past I would be freaking out that its 3 weeks from Christmas and I haven't even started the shopping, but this year it doesn't bother me. We will get it done and I'm glad we've opted for a simple Christmas, just the way it should always be!