Saturday, December 15, 2007

CHRISTMAS - IT'S MORE THAN GIFTS

Well the Christmas holidays are fast approaching and once again this year I find myself unable to purchase gifts for my children due to low finances. At this moment I have all three of my children spending the holidays here with me and while I would have loved to have had gifts and lots of munchies on hand I am happy that they truly understand and are not bothered by it. After all, they aren't young children anymore but young adults of 20, 22 and 25. They too find themselves a wee bit short this holiday season and now realize the stress of trying to buy gifts when the money isn't there. It is hard enough for them to manage day to day expenses in these difficult economic times for our youth.
However, that has not stopped us from gathering together for a week in our small 2 bedroom apartment and enjoying each others company. Sitting around with the three of them earlier this evening and talking and laughing was like a gift in itself. It is not easy to get all three together at the same time with work and college occupying most of their time so I am really grateful for the time we do have together.
Funny to listen to these three young adults joke around and tease each other and seem to genuinely enjoy each others company. It doesn't seem long ago that they were arguing and fighting over silly things like..."She's sitting too close to me!" "He ate the last bowl of cereal!!" :) I use to wonder at what age do siblings become friends? It makes me happy to see that obviously I did something right in raising these three as they seem like such 'normal, well adjusted' young adults.
So we are making our plans for Christmas, turkey for sure, and just enjoying each others company. Who knows when we will all be together again? Hopefully we have created a strong enough bond that we will continue to try and spend time together despite our busy hectic lives.
** Don't tell them but I did manage to make them a few gifts, just like Santa. But even without them, we know the true meaning of Christmas is being with our loved ones and being thankful we are all healthy and happy and still together...not the number of gifts under the tree.

3 comments:

DubLiMan said...

Hi Trish,

Thank you for the comments you left on my site, at my "Happiness Refined" post. I thought that me response was important enough that I wanted to make sure that you saw it:

I used to think the same way about negative people sucking the energy until recently. When I realized that happiness is a choice, I also realized that negative people could only suck the energy from me if I allowed them to do it. There are negative people in my life, like my mother, that I can't just eliminate. I just choose not to let her negativity effect me.

The knowledge that you have "CHOICE" is a very powerful weapon.

DubLiMan said...

Merry Christmas! Come on by and collect your gifts. http://mondaymorningpower.blogspot.com/2007/12/holiday-awards-presentations.html

trish said...

I don't think I explained myself properly Mel. I don't actually avoid negative people, that's impossible as they are in my life. I just don't seek out that type of person as a friend. Like you I let them know that I prefer not to dwell on the negative with them and just keep the atmosphere upbeat when I am around them.