It is always better when Mom pays for it !

Since my kids were little, Mike and I have always tried to teach them that Christmas giving can be as fun as receiving. In doing this we would take them shopping ( usually a dollar store or Santa's workshop when they were in elementary school) and have them pick out a gift for each member of our family. The rules were simple; one gift per family member( this has changed to a dollar amount per person now that they are older and not shopping at everything is a dollar) and nothing for themselves. The latter has honestly never been a problem as they know that their siblings would be getting for them.This afternoon , while Mike was at work, the kids and I started talking about the Christmas shopping that they will be doing.Since Cindy is working this year other than mowing my parents yard , she proudly stated that she would not be needing money from me for this. She then went on to talk about her friends that she intended to exchange gifts with this year. I reminded her that,after Christmas last year, I bought some things on sale for her friends this year . She was pleased at this and we ended up going through a box of things remembering what we had bought for whom. This particular box also contained things that were bought for no one in particular but were just a good deals. These things are usually used as donations for charities, anonymous gift exchanges or for the extended family auction which funds a yearly Christmas Party / reunion for my Mother's brothers and sisters and their families. After Cindy had gotten all of the gifts for her friends from the box she looked at me with a smile. So mom, she said, what would you like for Christmas. How about this..... Gee Cindy, I guess that since your shopping with your money this year , you are keeping costs down ! We both just laughed.