Almost Done With My Shopping

I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping for the grand kids. Yesterday I went out to shop with Jenn and this morning we met Candi and B.J. at the store to shop for their boys. I only have a couple more things to take care of and then if I want to shop, it will just be for fun. I must say having twenty grandchildren can be overwhelming but I feel blessed to have each one of them. My parents have been such great examples of generosity and love throughout my life. They were not rich, being retired school teachers but we always knew they loved us. Every Christmas Mom would give me an envelope for each one of my children with money in it with everyone's names written down. Then on Christmas Day, Dad would pass out his envelopes to each of the kids and grand kids that we could use to buy whatever we wanted after Christmas. When I talked to Mom on Monday she seemed confused and frustrated. She couldn't find her list of all the names so she could go to the bank and take money out to do her Christmas giving. Later on when I was getting ready for bed, I had this feeling that it was time to stop the money giving from her. Why should a widowed person give money to very successful kids and grand kids? The next morning I called her and told her that we are simplifying this year and she is not to give any money to any of us for Christmas. I think she was relieved but then kept saying, "but I want everyone to know how much I love them." I texted all my siblings and told them what I had done and wanted to make sure they were all right with the decision to let that tradition stop, they all agreed. We decided that she can still give a little bit for birthdays but nothing for Christmas. I feel really good about this and it may take a while for her to agree, but I think in the end she will be so glad and hopefully relieved. Today while Candi and I were shopping she found some really funny hats. One looked really cute on her with green and silver bows all over it. She wanted to take some pictures and made me try on some of them too. She looked really cute and I looked like someone who isn't all there, which is true most of the time. There's never a dull moment when she's around, but I'm really glad she got her hair back to a normal color, the pink was making me sick.