Sorry for the delayed post, but last minute Christmas shopping and wrapping up gifts has kept me fairly busy this week. Along with failed cookie recipes and planning for my family’s Christmas get together this Saturday.
Hopefully my new batch of cookies will go better in the morning, fingers crossed!
Not much to report at the moment other than the madness that now surrounds Christmas. So here is my little Christmas shock this year…
On Thursday this week, we had decided to take Valeria to have her photo taken with Santa. Woo exciting! I’m personally indifferent about the whole thing and find it a little….creepy to have my kid sit on a strange man’s lap. But I digress. Back to the story here, so I dress Valeria up in a cute little winter sweater, black pants with little silver stars at the ankles and did her hair in cute little pigtails at the back. I know I’m biased, but my goodness she was so freakin’ adorable! Anthony and I also dressed up just in case we could photo bomb. WHAT!? Yes, we are those parents, don’t be so surprised! We head to the mall and get in line, than we find out we needed a reservation to see Santa.
Let me repeat: A RESERVATION! I find that utterly ridiculous.
I remember when I was a kid, you would stand in line and wait to get your turn to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him what you wanted for Christmas and than FLASH, photo taken and off you went. Mom would pay for the photo and you would be on your way to the food court or to walk around the mall with your parents. Now you need to pay in advance and reserve a spot to see Santa. Who was barely at his chair to be completely honest, I swear every time we walked by he was gone and my dad even saw him walking around the mall. Needless to say, we didn’t end up getting a photo with Santa and they were fully booked for the rest of the week. Fine by me to be honest, we’ll just have to reserve a spot next year I guess.
I was completely rolling my eyes on that last sentence.
Now onto my reoccurring feeling regarding Christmas, now bare with me and I’m sure people probably don’t have a similar opinion about it, but it’s just my thoughts. I’ve been feeling that the Christmas Season has really lost it’s meaning and it seems to have the expectation of being more and more extravagant with gifts every year. I love buying gifts for our parents, the kids and our little family (my daughter and husband), but I feel like it’s always a competition with family on how much you buy/spend on gifts. And honestly, I am so exhausted over it. I feel like it’s lost it’s meaning; which is celebrating Christ’s birth, being charitable and spending time with friends and family. Cherishing those precious moments and celebrating traditions.
There is so much pressure put on us during the holiday season, not to mention if you host Christmas at your house, look out! But I wish we could get back to the basics. Put a limit on gifts/spending (hey even make some homemade gifts!), decorate the best you can, cherish the family traditions we have (and maybe make some new ones), being with family/friends, go back to church and just really take the time to appreciate everything we are given throughout the year. Let’s take the pressure off shall we?
I want to change things next year and embrace….simplicity. We will see if it comes true, just got to manifest it first.
Anyway, that’s my little Pre-Christmas rant for the week. I hope you had a wonderful week wherever you are in the world!
Ciao!!
Mama on the Move 