Holiday Torture No More

My kids got a bit of a treat for St. Patrick's Day, I made them green eggs and ham with a green blueberry muffin on the side. The older three loved that mom was playing with the food for once. Bear would have nothing to do with the eggs. He picked at them and asked, "What are these?" I told him they were eggs and he said, "Where did you get them?" I had to laugh. He's still a bit too young to enjoy such a menial thing as food coloring in his food.

What fun holidays are when we are young. They seem so magical and exciting. I often wonder where all that fun loving excitement went now that I am an adult. Why can't I relax and enjoy the fun spirit of holidays anymore? Maybe it's because now I am responsible for making them memorable for my kids instead of laying back waiting to see what my mom was going to do for me. I used to love holidays like Christmas, Halloween, and Easter. Now I just see them as one more ploy to load my kids up with superfluous garbage and junk food. Whatever happened to "special occasions" Now there is a holiday every month and I am going broke, my kids expect goodies almost everyday it seems like, and I can' keep up with all the decorating I am suppose to do. Is it bad of me for wanting to skip a holiday sometimes?

I know there are no rules concerning proper holiday present giving, but the commercial industry makes it hard to ignore. Big D and I have decided that we are not going to spoil our kids with every holiday. We are going to quit torturing ourselves with debt that takes us six months to pay off. Presents aren't what celebrating is all about. We need to go back to celebrating the spirit of individual holidays. So with Easter coming up this weekend we are going to give each of our kids a new Spring outfit and that's it. We aren't going to overwhelm ourselves with making it to every Easter egg hunt in town. We aren't going to load our kids with sugar just so they can turn into little monsters. We are going to discuss the reason we celebrate Easter and we are going to enjoy all the blessings that this holiday brings to us.