With Beanie’s birth this year, a new Santa Claus was born. Chris and I have been excited about being Santa since we first found out we were pregnant. There are lots of times in life when your parents have an impact on you, but Christmas morning is probably right on the top of that list. I mean, think about it. Your memories of Christmas as a child most likely centered about Santa on Christmas morning. And that was totally your parents doing. It wasn’t the pediatrician, or the Mommy playgroup, or the Grandparents, or Dad’s co-workers. It was all your parents making Christmas morning special.
And that’s a power that I don’t take lightly.
Chris, however, is another story. To be honest with you, as I sit here in the midst of Christmas shopping for Beanie, I am amazed that Santa and Mrs. Claus didn’t get divorced.
More specifically, I am amazed that Mrs. Claus didn’t kill Santa.
And even more specifically, I am surprised that the truth about Santa and Mrs. Claus has not come out to the general public yet.
The truth being that Santa sat around on his plush red arse yelling out about bottom lines and budgets while Mrs. Claus schlepped from workshop to workshop searching for the perfect gift for children.
No wonder Santa and Mrs. Claus had to live thousands of miles away from civilization. Their entire marriage was based on picking Christmas presents for thousands of children. The mileage was so the neighbors couldn’t hear them screaming at each other over the cost of tinker toys.
Chris believes that since Bean is only a wee Bean and probably won’t remember any of this when he gets older anyways, we shouldn’t fuss over his Christmas presents so much. Every gift I have brought home for Beanie, I have had to justify to Chris. Its really freaking annoying.
Oh, sure. We had one little trip to Toys R Us a few months ago after a nice family dinner out. Beanie was sleeping in his stroller and Chris and I strolled leisurely through the toy store, talking about what Beanie would like and reminiscing about Christmas gifts we got as kids. It was one of those nights where you gaze lovingly at your husband and thank the Good Lord for picking him as the man you’ll spend the rest of your life with.
But that was all before any purchases were made.
Now that I’m buying these presents and bringing them home, Chris is all “ANOTHER Christmas present for Bean?” and I’m all “Yes, SCROOGE, another Christmas present for our CHILD on his FIRST FREAKING CHRISTMAS! DEAL WITH IT!” and he’s all “Well, how are we affording all these things?” and I’m all “I took them out of the budget for YOUR Christmas presents this year, DEAR!” and he’s all, “YOU DID WHAT?!?!? WHAT ABOUT MY PRESENTS?!?!?!?” and I’m all, “See? THAT’S what it would feel like to not get any gifts on Christmas, SANTA CLAUS!”
And I totally win that argument every single time.
And yet, we continue to have it every time I bring home another Christmas present. Marriage is a vicious cycle of arguments you’ve had before, isn’t it?
In my defense, I have bought Bean’s entire Christmas – including his stocking – for $100. And I think that’s pretty darn good considering he’s my Bean and its his first Christmas and I’m a Christmas junkie.
So, what has my $100 bought him? Well, let’s take a look!
His big gift this year is this Baby Einstein Animal Exploration Tunnel ($39.99; Amazon). Its a tunnel that has all these toys and things hanging down inside it for him to play with. While he’s little, he can either lay down in it and look around at everything or he can sit in it and play with anything he can reach. When he gets a little bigger, he can crawl through it and play with the toys. Mrs. Claus is super excited about this one. Even Santa said it was cool.
Other than his Exploration Tunnel, the major theme for Bean’s Christmas is bathtime. He LOVES his bath. So he’s getting some things to make bath time super fun.
Like this giant Munchkin Duck Bathtub ($9.99; Target). This gift is only $10 and its one of his big gifts. He’s going to LOVE it! I don’t know how its going to fit into my bathtub or where I’m going to keep it when its not Bean’s bathtime, but those are details we’ll just have to work out later. Cause he needs this tub.
To go with his bathtub, he’s getting some small little stocking stuffers like a hand puppet washcloth that looks like a duck. And, of course, he’s getting an entire army of rubber duckies with his initial on them. But one of the coolest, cheap little gifts to go with his bath theme is this Summer Tub Time Bubble Maker ($9.99; Toys R Us). I didn’t even really mean to buy this, but it was only $10 and its perfect because he loves bubbles. It hooks to your tub faucet so that bubbles blow while he takes a bath. I think he’s really going to like it!
He is also getting this Hasbro Walk ‘n Ride ($17.99; Toys R Us). I wanted to get Beanie a walker toy for when he starts to learn to walk later this year, but I didn’t want to get him something that he can’t use until then. This toy was perfect. It has a break on it so that you can stop it from rolling. That way when he’s learning to stand up, he can use this to hold on to and it won’t roll out from underneath him. And it also has gears on it so that as he learns to walk, it doesn’t roll faster than he can keep up with. And the best part is that when he’s walking, it folds down and becomes a push car he can ride. I found this on sale in Babies R Us a couple weeks ago and even Amazon didn’t have a price that low. So, for $18, he has a toy that he can use for a year or two. GREAT BUY, MRS. CLAUS!
Those are all of his “big” gifts. He has a few other little hand toys and things that he’s getting in his stocking. And, of course, there is the truckload of toys his grandparents have for him. I’m glad they’re coming to our house for Christmas this year because we’d have to rent a U-Haul to get all of their gifts home with us.
Being Santa and Mrs. Claus, while sometimes trying, has been a lot of fun. I have such wonderful memories of Christmas mornings at my house when I was growing up and I’m so excited that I get to give that to Beanie, too. Of course, we all know that the greatest thing you can give your baby is love, but sometimes nothing says love quite like an inflatable duck bath.
15Nov
This week, we’re preparing for Christmas here on Marriage Confessions. And you can’t talk Christmas without talking presents. And you can’t talk presents without first talking about budgeting.
Actually, I guess some people can talk about Christmas presents without talking budgeting, but I am certainly not one of them. Chris and I live on what we like to call a “creative budget.” We have to be really creative to make it work.
The biggest struggle in our house is the paycheck schedule. I only get paid once a month. Without getting into too much mundane detail, we use my monthly paycheck to pay our mortgage and about half of our bills and put whatever else is left in savings. Chris gets paid weekly, so I use some of his paycheck every week to pay for Bean’s daycare (which, for the record, should include solid gold highchairs and hand spun silk crib sheets for all the money we give them…) and about 15% of his paycheck every week goes to gas because he has to drive so far every day. And then we live off of the rest of his paycheck every week.
And that ain’t much.
So, Christmas presents usually come out of my monthly paycheck and we just put less in savings for a couple months. Because of the monthly thing, I am learning that I have to start shopping earlier in the year because I don’t have money coming in to buy gifts with all the way up through Christmas Eve.
The problem I have shopping so far out is that I think of gift ideas throughout the year and then forget about them when it comes time to shop. So, this year I was playing around with my Amazon.com account and I came across this thing called a Shopping List. Have you heard of these? Or used them before? Maybe I’m the last one to figure this feature out, but it is just perfect for those people who have to be a little more…financially strategic…at the holidays.
The Shopping List, Gift Organizer, and Wish List features on Amazon make it really easy to organize and – more importantly – budget for your gift buying. First things first, you need to create your own Wish List. Do you use these? My family has started using them in the past couple of years and they make Christmas shopping so much easier. An Amazon Wish List is as simple as it sounds – its a list of things you want. Then, your friends and family can buy for your straight off of your Wish List, kind of like a registry.
After you’ve created your own personal Wish List, you need to set up your Gift Organizer. This was the first year I used the Gift Organizer and it was AWESOME. You are basically setting up wish lists for different people that you will be shopping for. I would show you a picture of mine, but it has Christmas presents all over it and I can’t give away any of Santa’s secrets to nosy family who might be reading my blog today.
The great thing is that once you create these other wish lists, you can add things to them all year long as you find things for family members. I even got crafty enough that when I’d see something I wanted to buy someone out in stores, I would go home and find it on Amazon (cause Amazon has EVERYTHING) and then add it to that person’s wish list.
And its so easy. When you pull up a product on Amazon, like this little toy Beanie might be getting…
…over on the side where you have all the options for buying, there is an item called “Add to My Wish List…
And when you click that, it asks you whose wish list you want to add the item to.
So, it really is creating your shopping list for you by person. I started using this early this year for the first time and it was awesome. I just added everything I thought of for a person to their wish list and then when it was time for me to start buying, I had all these choices to choose from. I’d pick the best gifts (and ones that fit into my price range) and those would make it onto my Amazon SHOPPING LIST.
The shopping list is the next thing you’ll need to set up. The shopping list is like an online shopping cart, only it lets you hold things and pick and choose what you want to buy. I used this feature mostly to budget my money. Three months ago, I went through my wish lists and added anything that I wanted to give someone for Christmas this year to my Shopping List. Once I had everything I wanted to buy on that list, I could pick and choose what I could afford to buy with each paycheck.
You can’t see it too good in this picture, but as you select items to move from your Shopping List to your Shopping Cart for purchase, it gives you a running subtotal so you know just what you’re spending on that one purchase. Since I had three months of paychecks, I would give myself an amount of money I could spend that month and then just fill my Shopping Cart with things from my Shopping List until I hit the amount of money I had given myself.
It. Was. Awesome.
It sounds like a lot of extra work – creating lists and moving items from one list to another. But once you set up the foundation with all of your wish lists, it is such an easy process. Sure, it might be easier to just go to the mall and pick out things. But let me tell you how much I have saved this year with just a couple extra steps! Last year I spent a certain amount of money on presents that I just bought without any planning. I found them in the store and bought them for people.
Wham. Bam. Done.
This year, I have BETTER gifts for people because I have had to think through what I’m buying them AND I have saved so much money. I was able to cut my Christmas budget in HALF this year – and not even on purpose. I gave myself the same amount of money to spend, but by the time I had everyone’s shopping done, I was at just over half of the amount I had spent last year. And I was finished!!
I have always been against online shopping because it seemed so impersonal and too easy. But let me tell you something, the gifts I was able to buy this year are so much more personal because I put so much thought and preparation into them. I have been thinking about my family and the perfect gifts to give them for MONTHS and with online shopping, I was able to keep track of those purchases and even save some money.
I AM A CHANGED WOMAN!
Do you online shop? Why or why not?
14Nov
This year, I started Christmas shopping really early. So early, in fact, that it is not even Thanksgiving yet and I am pretty much done. I have a few little things to pick up here and there, but basically I’m ready to go.
What I’m saying is that I have become my Mother.
My mom is a rare creature when it comes to Christmas. You know how in Whoville, the Who’s celebrated Christmas year round? And then the actual holiday season was their big blowout celebration of all their hard work that year?
My mom would have been a great Who.
You have to give Mom your Christmas list in August. And I’m not even exaggerating. Mom shops all year long for Christmas presents. I think that started when my sister and I were younger and money was tighter for my parents. She used Kmart layaway every year to buy our presents. As we grew and money became less of an issue for my parents, I think Mom’s shopping habit became more of a sport than a necessity. Now, I think she shops year round because it sometimes takes that long to find the perfect present. And Mom ALWAYS gives the perfect present.
Our house at Christmas was never short of a gift.
There was that one year when Mom got us all Bluetooth ear pieces for our cell phones and then she broke out in a lecture about how she was afraid we were all going to die in car accidents from talking on our cell phones while driving. Uh…Merry Christmas to you, too, Mom…
That was also the year that my sister, who is a total germ/clean freak, got hot pink rubber cleaning gloves. We really live it up at Christmas in my family…
And my Dad always gives my Mom Chanel perfume. Chanel No. 5. Its how my Mom smells. And its loverly.
Last year when we went home, I was about six months pregnant.
(This is what Christmas attire in Florida looks like. We played golf earlier that day and then came home and opened presents.)
And even though Beanie was still in my belly, you never would have known. He was definitely there in my parent’s house. He had presents under the tree and, of course, he had a stocking…
So, why am I telling you all about this on November 14? Well, because at my house in Connecticut, Christmas is in full swing. And to celebrate, I’m going to devote my blog this week to all things Christmas. We’ll talk about budgeting and affording gifts, about family and travel, about entertaining, about my first year as Santa Claus, about the always frustrating gift giving to the men in your life, and we’ll even have a giveaway (…or two).
So, put on your reindeer antlers and break out the fruitcake. Christmas has come early!
Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote that post about how motherhood had given me peace? About how since becoming a mother, my life had become simpler? Purer? About how I finally came to understand God’s love and sacrifice?
Well, that was all before Halloween.
On Saturday night, Chris and I had friends and their kids over for dinner and to go trick-or-treating. I was so excited. It was our first time hanging out with other parents as parents doing something for our kids with other kids. I was beaming. I laid out Bean’s costume, I baked a casserole, I Febreezed the dogs. I was ready.
But nothing could have prepared me for the chaos that comes with four small children, a couple costumes, and pumpkins filled with candy. There is just no preparing for that. There is also no recovering from that either. In fact, as I write this it is Sunday afternoon and I am still hiding in my closet, rocking back and forth, whispering, “The children! Stop the children!”
I don’t have many pictures of the actual dinnertime because I was busy catching flying tater tots and spears of broccoli.
That’s right. I served broccoli. To children. On Halloween. And as little green rockets went flying by my head, I realized that maybe that wasn’t such a great idea.
I also don’t have any pictures of the actual act of trick-or-treating. But that’s because Bean couldn’t walk, so I was carrying him while we waited for the other kids to go door-to-door. And because I was still on the look out for flying spears of broccoli, so I was sort of distracted.
But we did have a little photo session outside my house before The Great Candy Adventure of 2009 commenced…
It looks like Bean is sitting up on his own – and he is! – but only because the tail on his costume helped him balance. I don’t think that technically counts as sitting up for the first time…
Beanosaurus
“Rooooarrr!!!”
Twirling. Its a princess thing. You wouldn’t understand.
You know, before we had Beanie Halloween was always a crazy holiday. Full of grown women dressed like tramps and grown men dressed as nuns. The candy may not have been flowing, but the beer certainly was. And tricks and treats certainly had different meanings. I thought nothing could be as crazy as a college bar on Halloween night.
I was wrong. Suburban Halloween is crazier than drunken college Halloween any day of the year.
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