Christmas Shopping

Well, Becky wants to go Christmas Shopping in August so that when the baby arrives we will have it all done and not have to worry about it. I feel her and agree with her logic and preparations for the future, but it does feel weird Christmas shopping in the month of August. It is not even fall yet. I have a feeling we will have a long Christmas season this year. That is cool though, definitely my favorite Holiday. Maybe I can go string up the lights, that will put me in the mood. It is nice to be able to afford Christmas gifts this year though. Last year we could not even afford rent and food, let alone gifts. The lord has blessed us this year. To get into the end of the year spirit I am reminiscing on my last year. Last year in December we spent the last of our savings on food, had the church help us with rent, postponed all our bills, and I had not job. On January 5th of this year I got a job that was not only the best paying job I have ever had but also the best perks which allowed me to not only work at home, but to be my own boss, schedule my own hours, and take whatever days off I desire. Within two months we had caught up on our rent and most of our bills and were looking into houses. By April we had purchased our first house, added to our bills and started up a planning path as we found we were having little Nathan. Becky lost her job and by June she was working at home beside me, also making more then any job she had ever had with the same perks. Her downtime put us behind a bit but within two months we were not only caught up on our bills, with all our medical bills paid off in full but also had a new puppy and plane tickets purchased for our Christmas trip to Ohio. we had also paid off people we had borrowed money from in our hard time last year and still have money left over to pay our bills and purchase Christmas gifts. The only thing we do not have now that we had last August is savings, but those will come fast enough as we are saving and our bills are caught up. However we have a lot of new things including jobs, a house, a puppy, a baby 7 months in the making, and smaller things like our Disney and vacation clubs. We also have a new car which we were forced to get (as if our arm was twisted) in March when our car died. Now, due to a very blessed year we can finally focus on our trip to Ohio, Christmas, and future plans in place of pulling ourselves back up from the hit of a bad economy. So, through it all it will be nice to do some Christmas shopping without worrying about how much it will hurt us in the future. and though it is only August, it will be nice to plan and prepare for Christmas (mostly for Nathan as he will be 6 weeks-ish old by then). I am glad his first Christmas can be with most of the family and he will get to meet his grandparents and great grandparents. Exciting times ahead, very exciting, and like Becky eagerly reminds me, we should start preparing for them now.