Penny for your thoughts...

There are some things you just don't think about very often. One of them has been on my mind quite a lot since last night.

Martin was reading a "news" story on AOL about the cost of Christmas. Readers were polled about how much money they spent on Christmas gifts for their children, and the average for our area was about £260 per child(that's around $400), which was the highest in England. The lowest was in London and was around £160 ($240). Now, granted, I have no idea how much money my mom and dad used to spend on us. But I'm pretty sure it was nowhere near that much, and I remember having fantastic Christmases while I was growing up!

At the end of the news stories on AOL the readers can post their comments, and Martin read a few of them out loud to me. Some people were shocked and appalled that people weren't spending MORE money than that! But one person's post nearly broke my heart. They said that they couldn't even pay their mortgage, let alone buy gifts for Christmas. They said that they were heartbroken because their children would have to face the reality of economics at such a young age and would have to have their dreams of Santa shattered so early.

Martin posted that we were making most of our Christmas gifts this year. He said that he believed (and hoped) that our friends and family would appreciate thses gifts even MORE than store-bought ones since they came from the heart and involved a lot of effort on our part.

I also saw something on a blog that I stalk, erm, read. It was about a charity that helps hungry children in the U.S. They gave some statistics about how many people in one of the richest countries in the world are expected to go hungry this Christmas.

I couldn't even wrap my head around that--there are some families who can't even afford to feed their children! How is that possible in the United States of America? How much would it break your heart to hear your babies crying because they were hungry and not be able to do anything about it?

We have been broke this year. I mean totally broke, not just feeling the pinch a little bit. But we've always managed to pay the mortgage and the bills. Grocery money has been nearly non-existent at times, but we have never actually gone hungry because we couldn't afford food. We are truly blessed.

We are having Christmas this year. We have a tree, which is largely decorated with home-made ornaments and things that were given as gifts to us in Christmases past, and it is lovely. We are sharing the cost of our Christmas dinner with our family, so none of us will go over our food budgets but we will be able to have a traditional dinner with all the trimmings. Martin and I don't really have many gifts for each other, but our children will have gifts under the tree and we have been able to buy or make gifts for our families. It won't be much, but at least our kids will have a Christmas that is fun and memorable. And that will make it special for us--knowing that our children are happy.

As for the food situation, well, that truly is a blessing. We've been hearing at church for YEARS now about the importance of having food storage. A whole year's worth of food is the goal, but money and storage space limit us. I have about 4 weeks worth of food in my house at any given time. Sometimes more, sometimes slightly less. But I ALWAYS have extra. It's saved our bacon more times than I can count--especially in the last 6 months. I pick up a few extra tins of tomatoes or some extra rice or pasta every time I can. And our family and friends always help out when they can. Even if I had a whole month with absolutely no money to spend on groceries, we wouldn't go hungry. Our diets wouldn't be very exciting, but we would have food in our bellies for every meal.

We may not have a lot, but we have enough. And for that, I am truly thankful!