Simplifying Christmas & Staying Debt-Free

Simplifying Christmas and maintaining that debt-free progress? Yes, it can be done!

#1. Remember what Christmas is all about. Is about making sure you get everyone the perfect gift? Is it rushing around to every Christmas party, event, or program? Is it about spending money or eating too much or exhausting yourself? No! Christmas is the time of year to celebrate the birth of Jesus by sharing His love with those you love. That’s really it. Jesus didn’t say we had to lose our minds and our control, retailers told us that.

#2. Identify your family’s Christmas mission & set priorities. We discussed and got buy-in from our kids that we wanted Christmas to revolve around Jesus’ birth and life and our family. We emphasized that it is not about how many presents we get. Set your priorities as a family. Determine how many parties, events, and programs you will attend. Which ones are most important to you as a family? Life is busy enough as it is so set your boundaries. 

#3 Set your Christmas budget. This year was the first time we actually saved all year in preparation for Christmas gifts. You already have your own personal family financial budget, right? (I hope so otherwise you may find yourself in big trouble down the road! Please google “budgeting”, visit a reputable website like Dave Ramsey or Crown Financial, or ask me to get the tools you need to get your budget on track.) So in reviewing your budget, how much do you have left over to spend on Christmas? It is not worth going into debt for folks. Let me repeat, IT IS NOT WORTH GOING INTO DEBT FOR. Jesus would not want you to do that. Last year, we set an amount and divided that by 12 months and began putting that amount away each month so that we would have a specific, ear-marked fund to spend on Christmas gifts, decorations, and foods. We stuck to that budget. We know Christmas is going to come every year whether we are ready or not, don’t be surprised by holiday gift giving – be on top of it all year.

For Christmas decorations, ornaments, and wrapping paper stock up on that in the week following Christmas for 50 to 90% deals! We bought plain brown craft paper in a huge roll that was 10x more paper for the same price as one or two wimpy rolls of Christmas-themed wrapping paper. You can use this all year round and decorate it for Christmas, Valentine’s, birthdays, or other occasions.

#4 Make your list and check it twice. As part of our budget, we had to determine what amount would go to our kids, ourselves, family members, friends, neighbors, and others. Our list is rather small because our focus is not on gift giving but it is on our family. Our kids reap the majority of our Christmas budget and a couple of other close family members. It’d be great to buy shiny expensive gifts for everybody we know, but I’m sorry, I love you, but I’m not willing to go into debt or sacrifice my future for it.

We do plan time to bake cookies or other tasty treats to share with friends, neighbors, as hostess gifts, and for others in our lives. I think a gift you made with your own hands is one that comes straight from the heart, people generally love it, and it’s an expensive way to share the love (and stay in budget).

#5 Jesus was born in a barn and slept in a feeding trough. Period. That was the perfect Christmas. I’m not sure how, during the past 2014 years or so Santa, trees, decorations, excessive gifts, and losing our minds with a flurry of activity is what it seems to have evolved into the quest for the “perfect Christmas”. I am not opposed to Santa, Christmas trees and decorations, gifts, or parties and events, but I just say no to the over excessiveness of it all and the energy-zapping, endless running for the sake of what should be a sacred holiday.

This year we did have to buy a small, inexpensive artificial tree after many years of having a beautiful real North Carolina Frazier fir from Uncle Jimmy. The rest of our décor came from the woods – fresh pine boughs, cedar, evergreens, holly, and even some mistletoe decorated our mantle, living room, and dining room. We have been blessed with the inheritance and gift of so many wonderful Christmas ornaments which we use to decorate our tree along with ornaments the kids have made throughout the years. Two days after Christmas I ran into Walmart and bought several 100-bulb light strands for barely $1 each, so we’ll have more / improved tree lights in 2015! I refused to buy them beforehand!

For my part, except for the absence of my dearest family members, we had a perfect Christmas. We ate, we drank, we sang, we decorated, we baked, we danced, we gave gifts, we made cards, we gathered with friends and neighbors, and we celebrated the birthday of Jesus. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

This Week at Ramsey Farms

Garden Fever: Seed Planning, Christmas Tree Recycling, and Randomness

It's barely January. Garden fever is burning me up! :) Looking and reviewing and re-reviewing and measuring the garden plan. Discussing and researching the building of cold frames to cover newly planted seeds in order to kick start the growing season several weeks ahead of time. Making my seed buying list and our January garden to-do list! Wooop! Seventy-three days until spring & counting!

The overwhelming urge to plant and grow something led me to a cold, rainy day project that recycled a clear plastic berry container into a seed germinating greenhouse for basil seeds! This will stay on top of the fridge (it's warm up there) for a few days until I see sprouts of green! Keep your fingers crossed - this is my first attempt at growing herbs from seed I harvested.

I researched then started a batch of broccoli sprouts this week. They soaked in warm water overnight and I rinse and drain them twice a day. It should take 4-6 days so we'll see what happens.

Spring / garden fever also have me looking at harvest dates for my favorite North Carolina - South Carolina grown fruits. For the past few years, we pick strawberries in April,  blackberries & raspberries in June, and Apples in late September. We eat a ton of fresh, raw fruit and bake a plethora of breads, cakes, pies, cobblers, & crisps.

But my favorite thing is the canning. Tart and tangy blackberry jam in January is divine! Sweet, juicy strawberry jelly is so delicious I have to hide the jars to maintain my inventory. Spicy, sweet apple butter and fresh tasting apple sauces give me the delicious taste of warm autumn mountain days all year round. Over this cold winter we've learned about making our own apple cider vinegar from the peels and cores of all those apples (and to think I've been wasting them all these years!! So mad.) and did you know you can make pectin - that jello like substance that makes jelly, well jelly-ish...you can make it from what? An apple! Yes, I'm going to be making jelly without commercial pectin. I am going to make crowder pea hull jelly this spring. I may skip the blackberry/raspberry pick this year but I decided that we must go get fresh peaches this year too! Oh! Spring...so much to look forward to and plan. Woooo!

On another note...since this week is all about de-Christmasing, I am considering recycling this year's tree into another bottle tree! Either to replace the one I created in the garden last year or as a new one in the front or for a friend? Got to think on a stand...the one I have outside now has my old iron rebar (?) tree stand on it and it's buried to hide it and support the bottle tree. Any suggestions?

Cold, cold, cold weather hit us again this week! :( A low of 20 Friday morning and 17 Saturday so the colorful sheet tents went up again at night to tuck in the plant babies for those cold nights! I got super protective and covered every crop we have including the ultra-hardy garlic and kale and the wintering herb garden. They are calling for a low of 4 degrees Tuesday morning. Yes four. So Monday I plan to harvest the biggest broccoli heads and at least one of the kohlrabi plants and keep covering the rest!

Speaking of Christmas (well...back a paragraph), did I tell y'all I got a sewing machine for Christmas?!? My dear, sweet, thoughtful Mom found a 1968 Swinger "Fashion Mate" that a friend of her's had had in storage for the last thirty or forty odd years.  I've been wanting a sewing machine for a long time, so I am very excited for this vintage piece.  It appears to be in good shape, I picked up some Singer Lubricant to oil the movable parts and sewing machine oil for the motor at Mary Jo's Saturday morning along with needles and a rotary cutter. I hope to get her up & runnin' this weekend as I have many projects that I want to start! My first project is going to be an apron! :) Yes. It's 2014 and I want to sew my own pretty apron to wear in my kitchen while I bake breads, make jams & jellies, can pickles & homemade salsa, and serve dinner to my family and friends. Sigh...

Broccoli

Broccoli watch is on here at Ramsey Farms! :) I'm keeping a close eye on these plants as they are nearing harvest time. Whew...it's about time!  These little beauties were planted about September 13 (unless I wrote it down incorrectly, which could be possible as we did not take close garden notes until now.) My original harvest expectations were for late November or early December, but the plants all appear to be healthy and continue to grow. The largest heads are at approximately 5.5 inches. I would like them to be a minimum of six inches to harvest.  Broccoli is a very cold-tolerant plant with ability to withstand a hard frost of 15-28 degrees.  In fact, the frost is reported to give this veggie a sweeter flavor! However, I think I'd be pushing my gardening luck if I let them stay out in the four degree temperature that's being forecasted for Monday night.

Breads

I'm pretty stoked that my home baked breads have been rising again beautifully. I guess this new jar of yeast was just what it needed. I am also happy to report that I have not been using the bread machine for the last two or three weeks. I was scared at first that I would not have the time I believed the bread machine saved me or that it would be too difficult to mix and knead by hand. It's so easy to get used to a convenience or machine or gadget which presumably makes our lives easier and think we just can never go back to living without the crutch. In fact, it's been much easier and probably faster and no hassle of dragging that big machine out and putting it away. Check out my recipe for homemade hamburger buns from Thursday.

During the week, I started a batch of sourdough bread starter. I've done this in years past, but never baked much back then. I believe this will get a ton of use since I bake bread at least three times a week now. I will definitely update you all on this next week! :)  Also this week, I whipped up a large batch of rustic weekly-bread. The dough can last in the fridge up to 14 days and you just pull off a cup full of dough each night (or morning) you want to bake the bread! Yum to that. I made 8 crusty dinner rolls with this bread tonight and it was super delish! Will post the recipe for this coming up because I think it's a keeper to add to my regular weekly baking.

Love Your Comments

So have you ever grown herbs from seed, grown broccoli in your garden, or made sourdough bread starter? I'd love to hear about your experiences! How was your Christmas? Use the comments box below to respond!

Christmas

My poor, dear four year old boy...the last few days before Christmas must drag by like being in stuck in traffic behind somebody driving 20 miles per hour on an interstate rated for 75 and you can't go around them! Everyday he asks, "is today Christmas?!" I find it to be a difficult task to tone down the overwhelmingly crazy Santa and gift ideas he gets primarily from school. We don't watch broadcast television, so he doesn't see commercials but boy oh boy does he think Santa Claus is going to bring him lots & lots of toys! I hope he isn't too disappointed.

I'm not going to tell him the truth about Santa, but the jolly old man is rather de-emphasized at home. We discuss the real meaning of Christmas - Jesus's birth, the arrival of God's son on the earth. We do not overdo Christmas with gifts. We do overdo Christmas with food, family time, crafts, and holiday movies and activities.  Mostly food. (My personal love language is food! If I offer it, accept it, eat it, like it...lest I may think you don't love me back! :)

Christmas becomes stressful when we try to buy more than we can afford or attend too many events and parties or constantly stay on the go or in a rush. I don't care for that at all. There are so many people out doing their holiday errands, it makes the regular, everyday, routine errands much more difficult. I look forward to January when I can go to the store without battling traffic or hoards of people. Where did all these people come from anyway? It took me over 35 minutes to get to a store that generally takes me about ten minutes to get to the other day! I actually stocked-up and purchased most of my groceries and other necessities for more than a month back just before Thanksgiving - to avoid these insane crowds. So ready for the world to return to it's "normal" flow.

Somewhere in our culture, people got it mixed up in our heads that we have to go into massive debt to afford the "right" Christmas.  Again it's the media and marketers working their evil magic on us! LOL If you can't tell your children "no" or you're in credit card debt or other financial situations, you have other problems than just Christmas (no offense - I've been there!) but let me just state that you can have a beautiful Christmas, create wonderful memories, and have a blessed time with your family for very little money.

I encourage gently-used and homemade gifts. There is absolutely nothing wrong with finding the "perfect" book, sweater, jacket, lamp, wall art, wine rack, jewelry, toys, housewares, etc. at an antique, consignment, or thrift shop and giving it as a gift. I'll take a great item and that you recycled and saved money all at the same time - win-win! :) And if a person takes the time to make me something, whether it be food or beverage, artwork, crafts, bath & body products, candles, jewelry, photographs, knitted or crocheted items - that is the most wonderful gift of all! Not only are they giving me something awesome I get to eat, wear, or use but they made it with love and nothing else could be sweeter than that!

My daughter and I have been making things for weeks now.  I can't list them all here because, well because you'd know what you were getting! :) Next year we're going to be more proactive about creating gifts for people starting in October!

Oh yeah, I don't send Christmas cards either. But I love Christmas, don't think me a grinch! Just drop by "Ramsey Farms" during the season - our tree is gorgeous (thanks to Uncle Jimmy, Chris, and my kids!), the house smells of pine tree, cinnamon, bread baking, pumpkin spice,  peppermint, coffee, cookies, and chocolate and the sounds of children yelling and laughing, holiday music, and conversation fills the rooms, deliciousness is being baked up in the kitchen, puzzles are being put together, wood is being chopped, gifts are being crafted, debt or bills are not being accrued, cards are not being mailed (they are received and thank you!), and oh yeah - Jesus's birthday is coming up in a few days, family is coming to spend the night, and we are going to eat a five-course feast to celebrate!

Happy birthday Jesus!