After-Christmas thoughts

Well, Christmas is over. Hope everyone got lots of gifts, and practical ones at that. In our immediate family, we gave clothes, like socks and underwear, plus a few toys. The kids got toys, but the adults got all practical gifts from us. My Father-in-law and Mother-in-law have their heads buried in the sand about the coming economic diseaster. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm going to do what the Bible tells me: don't test the Lord, and always be prepared. Now, no, I can't find a specific verse for that, but I know it's there. I believe that people who don't do anything to prepare, and are resigned that it's "The Lord's Will, we'll be taken care of," are testing the Lord in his ability to take care of them. What if his way of taking care of you is to make you open your eyes, see what's going on around you, and put away extra provisions? Don't come knocking on my door, because I'll tell you the story of the ant and the grasshopper.

But, with that being said, I gave my in-laws a box of gifts, one for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas. I mentioned it in a previous post. He opened it, and kind of tossed it aside. I'm not sure he understood, or thought it was just food and gave it to his daughter. I don't know, but I did my part by trying to open his eyes. I'm not responsible for his decisions, just letting him know how I think it will be.

We gave mostly practical gifts to family, as well. Throughout the year, I had been shopping at thrift stores for little things I knew they would like. Most in my family are good with that. My mother-in-law thinks if you didn't spend a lot of money on her, you don't love her. She doesn't care if you only buy one gift, as long as you spent a lot of money. I didn't have a lot of money for her when I have 2 kids.

My sister-in-law and her husband are currently unemployed and living with his grandma (and his sister, her husband and daughter) in a 3 bedroom house. With 2 dogs and 2 cats. We all went together and got them a food box. She doesn't cook because she was forced to clean up after her mother (plus do all the housework), and being the "housewife" causes sort of a PTSD reaction. She makes convenience foods...like mac and cheese in a box, hamburger helper, suddenly salad, etc. I think that's fine. She sometimes just wants something with her and her husband, which I think is also fine. So we filled the box with box dinners mostly. I'm so glad Aldi's moved in to Texas. Our money went a lot further. I guess it makes up for not being able to get an Angle gift off the Angle tree. (Our church posts names of people who need toys for their kids, or clothes, etc. and you can support someone in the church that way.) We also filled their gas tank and my husband (the mechanic) put in all the fluids it needed. He said it needed 2 quarts of oil and power steering fluid. That's about the best we can do for them.

One tip that we have come to see as a tradition. We had to tell the new addition to the family about it. When you open a present in the Smith family, don't look at the box and say, "Oh, I got a (fill in the blank)." We reuse boxes all the time. We have a steak box that has been passed back and forth for about 5 years. If we buy something for ourselves, and think it's a good sized box, we'll keep it until Christmas.

I'm going to tell a little secret here: I usually shop for myself, tell my husband what he got me and if he has time he wraps it. I get what I want, and he's not rushed. It worked out well this year. I got a new blender that crushes ice. I had paid for half of a Vitamix, but when we moved out, my Mother-in-law refused to let me have it, and kept a lot of other things I paid half of. Now she uses it to chop nuts and that's it. Sunday morning, I made smoothies in it for breakfast, and it works great! Love it! I wonder if I could make applesauce with it? I'll have to check out different features some time.

Hope everyone's Christmas was good.