Christmas Decision

After getting a little advice from my 101 Moral Compass, Ryan and I have decided how this Christmas will play out (sorry if it seems like I'm cheating, but for me, I'll be crossing this off my list).

1. Gifts From Others for Ryan and I - We will accept gifts from people. If asked what we want for Christmas Ryan and I will advise others that we'd prefer if they didn't get us anything or instead donate a gift to Toys for Tots or something similar, but if they decline and get us a gift anyway, it would be rude to just give it away. I know when I personally buy gifts, I try to put a lot of thought into them, so I would be offended if someone just gave it away. (thank you Barbie for making me realize)

2. Gifts From Others to Jude - We will also accept gifts for Jude, but I will be sure to tell people (who ask) that we'd prefer if they would instead donate something in his honor.

3. Our Gift Giving to Others - WE WILL NOT BE BUYING GIFTS FOR ANYONE! This is a heads up as I know some friends/family like to gift give. Typically they don't buy with the intention that we'll get them something, but it of course makes receiving quite awkward. So please, anyone who reads this - save your money, and donate something to someone who otherwise would not have a Christmas! Ryan and I are typically very fortunate with what we get, I'm sure we could go a year without gifts!

4. Our Gift Giving to Jude - Ryan and I have decided to give Jude 1 gift. This of course will be hard to figure out! I already have found some many cute/little things I like. If I can't find one "big" gift to get him I will instead set a limit and buy a couple of small things not exceeding X amount. Either way, I'm sure it will be much less than it would be if I was free to buy what I wanted! This will require a little more research.

5. Our Donating - I'm not sure of the amount, but we typically spend a couple hundred dollars on christmas between friends, family, etc. I'm thinking we'll make a trip to Toys R Us or something and pick up a cart full of the typical board games or something. I'll probably do a little more research as the time gets closer on what programs are out there and go from there.

6. Our Christmas Party? - One year Ryan and I had a Christmas Party and we heard that it was a pretty big hit. As Barbie suggested, we should do this again and I totally agree. I know we had talked of doing it again and this year could be a great year to incorporate something new. Here's my plan if we do have another party (this is a maybe, but I see it happening):
- Last time we had everyone bring a gift under a certain dollar amount that was wrapped and we did a Secret Santa. I'll make this portion of the night optional. We'll pass out 'vouchers' of some sort for anyone who brings a Secret Santa that have numbers and you can pick a gift based on your number on the card (1 gets first pick, etc). When the gifts are about 5-10 dollars it's kind of just a fun little thing to do.
- In addition to the Secret Santa, we'll have another optional thing you can do of bringing a gift to add to our Toys for Tots type of donation. If we do the Christmas Party I'll send out invitation highlighting all of this. (barbie also suggested coats for the coat drive, etc - I'll get more info on these types of drives as well - perhaps even canned food for the food bank too and have boxes available to fill)
- This will be a family friendly party and I'll encourage everyone to bring friends, etc to make it as big of a drive as possible! For each person in attendance I'll expect (sorry if that sounds mean) at least one donation item.
- In order to cut costs and to avoid me spending more on the party and less on the donation, I'll provide a "main course" and will ask everyone else to bring a side dish of some sort.

7. What does this mean for decorations - We have a few decorations that we'll put out. I know that Ryan already said he'd put up Christmas lights (even though I know they won't be turned on). We have also said we'd go "all out" with decorations if my family decided to hold their Christmas Eve party at our house (which would be ANOTHER thing off my list). I do plan to have a Christmas Tree!

Now that we have this figured out, I'm VERY excited for the holidays!