Yes Farmwife, It Does Get Harder, But...

Farmwife commented on my last post and said something to the effect, "Is it just me or does Christmas get harder every year?". For me, the hunt is part of the fun. Yes, it can be stressful, but you just have to work to make it fun too!! Smart Guy and myself have actually made it harder on ourselves by allowing our children to only ask for one thing each year. (they get 5 things, the rest are things that I know they'll like) They usually start thinking somewhere around July because it's not a decision that comes easily. Since they only ask for one thing, I always try my hardest to make sure that one thing is there from Santa on Christmas morning. There was one year when Drama King wanted a certain Dinosaur Hot Wheels thingy. One full month before Christmas, it was no longer available anywhere, and it was going for over $100 + shipping on ebay. There was no way we were gonna pay that much for something that normally retailed for about $35. Figuring they'd be easier to get after Christmas, I had Drama King send Santa his letter that year, and "Santa" mailed a letter back to him that very gently explained that so many kids had asked for that toy that year that there was no way for him to make enough before Christmas, so he would have to make an extra trip to our house for his birthday in February just this once. Drama King accepted it, asked for something else, and moved on. By his birthday he actually wanted something different so it was never an issue. The very next year, he picked out an Animal Planet dinosaur toy at TRU. And again, they ran out a month before Christmas. I had everyone I knew looking at their TRU stores. Inkling looked, my mom looked, my mother-in-law looked, my cousin looked, Ruby looked, and a few more. These were all different TRU stores (the only ones to carry Animal Planet stuff) and none of them had it. I knew I couldn't let him down again after what happened the year before, I was desparate. Finally, my cousin found ONE in the Nashville area and bought it. We drove the three hours to pick it up and we had a very happy, dino-lovin' Drama King on Christmas morning.

Just today, I had a doll arrive in the mail that I had ordered from Target.com. It was pretty much sold out in most places. So, what do I do? I decide to get the doll at TRU and take the doll from Target back. So basically I made that one hard on myself. But I love it. It's for my kids. In some ways it's so hard to limit their list of gifts to 5 things, but in other ways, it's fun. It makes me have to really think about what would be important to them and what they will enjoy for more than 2 days after Christmas.

Prophet's gift this year show's he's growin' up more than I want to admit. He wants a gameboy. I've already got it. That was the thing we got for $40 instead of $70 at Walmart on Black Friday. His pile is gonna look so small this year. The gameboy is smaller than the palm of my hand and the games to go with it are packed in a 5x5 box. The little bag to hold it all is rinky dink. Everyone else is gonna have much bigger piles, I know I'm gonna feel like I should get him something else, but I won't.

I love the hunt. I love the stress and then the sigh of relief when it's over. I love the look on my children's faces when they see that one thing they asked for for months in their pile of stuff on the living room floor on Christmas morning. It's worth it all!!