Today I had a day off. Yeah!!!! Of course though it isn’t like I work a lot. When I do go to work, whether it is for a day in a week or six days a week, I only work during the rush hours and work 4 hours or a little more. It really is just enough to make ends meet and it is really only to hopefully one day be extra money in my pocket to spend on the house or other needs that we might encounter.
Katarina calls a little after one this afternoon to ask if we need anything. I told her that we were all set and that we didn't need anything. She said that Eric is driving her to work today and she would be home in a little while. A little while ends up being a little after 5:30 tonight and she came in bearing gifts. A tree on top of the jeep and things to decorate the tree with. She has the 1st gifts under the tree. One of me and one for Elijah. She bought stockings for us to decorate with. Now I have to get the rest of the Christmas things from up in the attic and just a few more weeks until the day arrives where everyone is excited to open gifts to see what they got.
I really have mixed feelings about Christmas. Over the past few years it seems as though it has just been very stressful. Never being able to pick out the right gifts for the children or I can’t afford to give gifts. Not only that but also in the stressful thinking about so many that are taking their lives more and more each year and the suicide rate seems to just escalate amongst our older generations.
I find myself feeling heavily burdened around the holiday seasons. I find myself feeling somewhat depressed and not understanding why. I find myself thinking about so many that are alone during the holiday season, yet we are able in some form to forget them. I suppose this year it is hitting more at home, because I think of my own Mother as she has nobody at home anymore and the loses that she has had in the past few years. Enough to bring anyone to depression... We find ourselves fighting the crowds of the malls and stores trying to figure out what each person wants and we seem to tend to forget what the real meaning of the holidays are about.
Even in the absence of what Christmas is suppose to be about... Love, Family, Friends, Giving, and Most Importantly the birth of Our Saviour Jesus Christ. Even if our calendars are wrong and this isn't really the time of year that is the birth of our Saviour. Yet, it is still suppose to be a remembrance of what it signifies. Ironically though, we give each other gifts instead and we wake our children and/or our children wake us and tell us that Christmas is here, Christmas is here!
We begin having it drilled in our heads, make sure that our eyes are seeing all the festivities, our ears hearing the music playing way before Halloween is here, Christmas things are coming out all over the shelves of stores. We hear every little bit a song here and there reminding us that even though one holiday of Halloween hasn't even arrived and not even the holiday of giving thanks is yet here, we are to remember that Christmas is here. As though it is the most important event of the year.
Stores begin their sales, their advertising, the papers are flinging everywhere with make sure you get yours now before you miss out on the sale now. Set up the lay away plans, pull out your credit cards, cash your checks, put money down, and buy it now.. While the sale last, while the supplies last, while you still have time (but don’t forget that Halloween isn't even here yet and it hasn't even hit the month of November) But, the stores are begging you and pressuring you to put all your cash and your credit and start buying now.
After all, it isn't important if you miss your house payment or you postpone your electric bill. It doesn't matter if your children are begging in your home day after day of what they want and please and beg and plead with you that is what they want under the tree. It doesn't matter if you are in the hospital or you have a loved one that just passed away. Or if you are receiving treatments or you are having a bad diagnosis. It doesn't matter if you have been just attacked or just robbed... What matters and what is number one.. Is what have you spent, how much money have you invested, what will you spend, will every one get what they want.. and did you do the most extravagant out of everyone..
It does not matter about the home that does not have a tree, or the child that does not have a gift to open. It does not matter if someone is struggling behind a bedroom door with a pill bottle in their hands because they can’t meet what society (our society in America) has set up and therefore they feel useless and want to take their life. It does not matter what anyone is going threw because the only thing that matters to everyone else’s eyes is look what I have done, look what I have spent, look what I have bought, look what I have purchased, look what we did for them.. etc.. nothing almost nothing is done in secret without wanting to be recognized..
Even here in the states have children that are starving.. and are doing without.. and really the only thing that matters in the eyes of the television, newspapers, stores, etc is what are we spending on each other.. because in reality the only thing that matters at this moment.. Is you buying, your purse be empty, pockets that have no change left, wallets only have credit cards that are now max out... that is the 1st priority.. The 1st impression we give to one another here in America..
Hence in January... when the holiday of Christmas is over, the stuff is put away, and finally the bills come in.. What do you think? What is your next thought? Was in reality, the money spent, worth the moment of your sinking feeling of what hours can you work now to make ends meet??? Was in reality, the money spent, worth it as you see your child throw the brand new sweater or Coach purse in the closet as if it has always been there? Was in reality, the money spent, worth it for you to see the food being tossed in the trash because to much was made and everyone is now burnt out on left overs?
Reality.. What is the real meaning of Christmas and the holiday season? That begins right before Halloween, by- passing Thanksgiving.. and straight into the Christmas season of, BUY, BUY, BUY!!! The more you buy... The more you love.. The more you purchase, the better you will appear to society.. Not saying I am not guilty from time to time in the past.. But the past few years, well I could go without Christmas really... Christmas has become people Guilty Pleasure.. Not Christmas of Pleasure giving...
*My Thoughts For The Day*
Katarina calls a little after one this afternoon to ask if we need anything. I told her that we were all set and that we didn't need anything. She said that Eric is driving her to work today and she would be home in a little while. A little while ends up being a little after 5:30 tonight and she came in bearing gifts. A tree on top of the jeep and things to decorate the tree with. She has the 1st gifts under the tree. One of me and one for Elijah. She bought stockings for us to decorate with. Now I have to get the rest of the Christmas things from up in the attic and just a few more weeks until the day arrives where everyone is excited to open gifts to see what they got.
I really have mixed feelings about Christmas. Over the past few years it seems as though it has just been very stressful. Never being able to pick out the right gifts for the children or I can’t afford to give gifts. Not only that but also in the stressful thinking about so many that are taking their lives more and more each year and the suicide rate seems to just escalate amongst our older generations.
I find myself feeling heavily burdened around the holiday seasons. I find myself feeling somewhat depressed and not understanding why. I find myself thinking about so many that are alone during the holiday season, yet we are able in some form to forget them. I suppose this year it is hitting more at home, because I think of my own Mother as she has nobody at home anymore and the loses that she has had in the past few years. Enough to bring anyone to depression... We find ourselves fighting the crowds of the malls and stores trying to figure out what each person wants and we seem to tend to forget what the real meaning of the holidays are about.
Even in the absence of what Christmas is suppose to be about... Love, Family, Friends, Giving, and Most Importantly the birth of Our Saviour Jesus Christ. Even if our calendars are wrong and this isn't really the time of year that is the birth of our Saviour. Yet, it is still suppose to be a remembrance of what it signifies. Ironically though, we give each other gifts instead and we wake our children and/or our children wake us and tell us that Christmas is here, Christmas is here!
We begin having it drilled in our heads, make sure that our eyes are seeing all the festivities, our ears hearing the music playing way before Halloween is here, Christmas things are coming out all over the shelves of stores. We hear every little bit a song here and there reminding us that even though one holiday of Halloween hasn't even arrived and not even the holiday of giving thanks is yet here, we are to remember that Christmas is here. As though it is the most important event of the year.
Stores begin their sales, their advertising, the papers are flinging everywhere with make sure you get yours now before you miss out on the sale now. Set up the lay away plans, pull out your credit cards, cash your checks, put money down, and buy it now.. While the sale last, while the supplies last, while you still have time (but don’t forget that Halloween isn't even here yet and it hasn't even hit the month of November) But, the stores are begging you and pressuring you to put all your cash and your credit and start buying now.
After all, it isn't important if you miss your house payment or you postpone your electric bill. It doesn't matter if your children are begging in your home day after day of what they want and please and beg and plead with you that is what they want under the tree. It doesn't matter if you are in the hospital or you have a loved one that just passed away. Or if you are receiving treatments or you are having a bad diagnosis. It doesn't matter if you have been just attacked or just robbed... What matters and what is number one.. Is what have you spent, how much money have you invested, what will you spend, will every one get what they want.. and did you do the most extravagant out of everyone..
It does not matter about the home that does not have a tree, or the child that does not have a gift to open. It does not matter if someone is struggling behind a bedroom door with a pill bottle in their hands because they can’t meet what society (our society in America) has set up and therefore they feel useless and want to take their life. It does not matter what anyone is going threw because the only thing that matters to everyone else’s eyes is look what I have done, look what I have spent, look what I have bought, look what I have purchased, look what we did for them.. etc.. nothing almost nothing is done in secret without wanting to be recognized..
Even here in the states have children that are starving.. and are doing without.. and really the only thing that matters in the eyes of the television, newspapers, stores, etc is what are we spending on each other.. because in reality the only thing that matters at this moment.. Is you buying, your purse be empty, pockets that have no change left, wallets only have credit cards that are now max out... that is the 1st priority.. The 1st impression we give to one another here in America..
Hence in January... when the holiday of Christmas is over, the stuff is put away, and finally the bills come in.. What do you think? What is your next thought? Was in reality, the money spent, worth the moment of your sinking feeling of what hours can you work now to make ends meet??? Was in reality, the money spent, worth it as you see your child throw the brand new sweater or Coach purse in the closet as if it has always been there? Was in reality, the money spent, worth it for you to see the food being tossed in the trash because to much was made and everyone is now burnt out on left overs?
Reality.. What is the real meaning of Christmas and the holiday season? That begins right before Halloween, by- passing Thanksgiving.. and straight into the Christmas season of, BUY, BUY, BUY!!! The more you buy... The more you love.. The more you purchase, the better you will appear to society.. Not saying I am not guilty from time to time in the past.. But the past few years, well I could go without Christmas really... Christmas has become people Guilty Pleasure.. Not Christmas of Pleasure giving...
*My Thoughts For The Day*