Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Christmas gift exchange.
There has been a bit of confusion on the christmas gift exchange. My idea was to instead of give gifts to eachother we use that money to donate to a family who could use it. I said $25 just as a thought but anyone could donate how much or little they wanted. Some people still wanted to give gifts to eachother, but ultimately my idea was to lesson the money we spend and give all that we can to a family in need. So let me know your thoughts, so we can figure this out.
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Katie doesn't have a spouse or other family to exchange gifts with. We are her family not her in-laws like you. I can really see how this is making Christmas a lot less fun for her. I don't have a solution and think it is too late to change it, but I am just pointing out why she is not happy. Let's just not do this donation thing next year. If you guys want to donate above what we give to each other, next year, that is great.
ReplyDeletegggrrrr. Yah, I guess in-laws don't count as family, right? Don't we all have the same last name? Wouldn't that make part of the same family?
ReplyDeleteJulie, Katie, and Emily can have a wrestling match. Whoever wins can decide what we do. I will bring the video camera. Andy you bring a camera. Then we can start getting some good blog posts again. Chris
I don't know how but Em meant that Kate doesn't have in-laws like you (the married people) do.
ReplyDeleteOkay so it sounds like everyone has strong opinions on the topic so we thought we would jump in with our opinion.
ReplyDeleteEmily, your post came off abrasive....if Katie was truly upset about the donation idea why can't she comment on that? If you have an idea then post it but don't attack other people with their ideas.
We see Julie's point in trying to save money and we agree it is a good idea to help other people in need. We are doing a sub for santa for a family through United Way and anyone is welcome to contribute to that if they so desire.
On the other hand, we feel like having a tradition is something our family truly lacks. Before when we had names, it gave all of us an opportunity to buy for each other and look forward to opening the gifts on Christmas day. Last year we kind of thought of starting a tradition of having all the grandkids have matching pajama's for Christmas. Instead of bringing that up, we just decided to get them from us. I am not saying we need to spend a lot of money and we realize Christmas doesn't revolve around money but we need to come up with some type of tradition that we do each year so everyone can look forward to. On one side of Lindsay's family there aren't very many grandkids or cousins but every year the grandkids draw names and give a $5 gift. This is something fun they look forward to each year. All of the adults bring a random $5 gift and we play games with them. It has turned into a really fun event that we all look forward to and everyone gets more creative each year with their $5 ideas. There are actually people who fight over $5 gifts because some of them are really good.
All we are saying is that we agree we need some type of tradition we do each year. It does not have to be expensive but something that will bring us together and we can look forward to each year.
There Chris....that is our input...as you requested!
I think we've got great traditions in the family. I always look forward to Christmas eve birthday dinner(s), Christmas stories before bed, new jammies, Christmas breakfast, opening presents together, playing with the new toys together, family pictures, etc. But just being together is enough for me.
ReplyDeleteMost, if not all of you make really good points, but I'm not sure why we are deviating from the original plan of sending us cash!!
ReplyDeleteI love that em loves her little sis and sticks up for her. I love that Andy loves em and tries to clarify her miscommunication. I love that Julie wants to give to people that need help and also be thrifty and stay in their budget.
ReplyDeleteI also love that Chris and Adam are funny and bring some levity to a somewhat tense situation. I love that Craig and Lindsay want to start some new traditions with our family. Love Mom.
ReplyDeleteSo, Craig and Lindsay, what type of traditions would you suggest for the family? Maybe when we are together sometime over the Thanksgiving holiday we can come up with some ideas. Maybe we could all go up to Kamas on Friday, the 28th, and hang out, come up with some ideas, and go to the rec center for swimming too.
ReplyDeleteChris
We were also thinking we could take a family picture that day too. Will everyone be visiting Kamas the day after Thanksgiving?
ReplyDelete-Chris-
Julie is dying to show off her skills!!!!
I got some mad skills.
ReplyDeletePs everyone is invited to a welcome to Utah party for Adam and Lindsey and a welcome to the world party for julien Friday after thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone who took my last comment serious, I was joking I still need lots of practice. So let me practice on all of you guys, thanks.
ReplyDelete