Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009? Already? Yes! No time like the present to start preparing for an event that you pretty much know is going to occur every year, whether you are ready for it or not.

I've already started my Christmas Club account at $10 a week, so I will get a deposit in my bank account for $500 the end of October. That's pretty much my budget every year, and every year when I go over my budget, it seems like it should be more than enough, but it isn't. So this past Christmas, I wrote down everything I spent money on that was not in the original Christmas budget: Stamps, Operation Shoebox, tickets for the annual Breakfast with the Puppets at church, the Wesleyan Woman ornament exchange, donating to my Sunday School class when they adopt a family or two, a love gift for the pastors, container for cookie exchange and items for the kids' Christmas stockings. Each one is not much, but adding up, it was nearly $200! No wonder I had more month than money last month! Wow - $200. That was a shocker.

But this year I will be better prepared. Even if I only set aside $10 a month, that will help immensely. I already have the ornament for the 2009 ornament exchange. I can be looking for stocking stuffers all year round. I can make my kids' 2009 tree ornaments this summer instead of buying them in November. I can work the Drugstore game to stock up on items for the adopt-a-family project throughout the year instead of donating money or going out to purchase items. And I can look for containers for the cookie exchange at yard sales.

But as I do that throughout this year, I also want to be able to remember the reason I'm doing this is to celebrate Christ's birthday and honor Him at the same time. The key for me will be remembering to do that, to not just consider these activities as something else checked off the to-do list but as an opportunity to celebrate Christ coming to earth in human form, to be the Savior we so desperately need.