Am I the only one who is breathing a sigh of relief that the holiday cluster is over?
Man oh man…
When Gen came to live with us, and we did our attachment therapy, we were told to make holiday traditions and make them STAND OUT.
Was this beneficial advice? Sure… When baskets of candy, and gift bags the size of a small refrigerator contained gifts that didn’t cost the same as a cheap car…
Now, well, with Christmas followed by Valentines day, then her birthday, then Easter (always near her birthday), plus the need for new spring/summer clothes- it’s exhausting…
And this year, with all of the legal stuff, we’ve had to get creative…
For example, instead of throwing a birthday party, we simply allowed her to invite one person to go to dinner and bowling. Other friends tagged along, (paying for themselves) and the bowling alley (who we paid NOTHING extra to) awesomely announced her birthday, autographed a vintage pin for her and made it special.
For her birthday gifts we shopped major sales (MAJOR) and were able to get her a new iPod (which she desperately needed) and a kindle (complete with 108 books) for what a party alone would have cost.
Then came easter. When we hadn’t a penny more, we stressed.
how do we make it special?
how do we make her feel like she isn’t paying a high price for this?
Introducing the less than $40 easter basket complete with BRAND NEW Converse, bath products, hair accessories, manicure items, DVD’s, loads of candy, gum and facial stuff. {95% of which was all “needs” anyway, added bonus}
The likes of which will never, ever be done again, I assure you. It was our frugal miracle, for sure…
And now, now we’re set until September when our family anniversary rolls around.
Happy us, free for another day of the evil parental guilt that nags at us, making us question if we’re “scarring her” further… The time and the legal stuff hasn’t hurt her during this difficult time when she needed to know nothing would change.
Rainy Day in May... 
i'm impressed! we never got a lot on holidays because there were 3 of us and only 1 person working in the family– but i remember plenty of times that holidays were special and bountiful. good job navigating the holiday glut!
Facebook has spoiled me. I want to LIKE your post. :) Good job Mama! :)
Emily, You know, exactly… It's so hard though because she is so fragile. If everything traditionally does not stay the same- it gets ugly. She feels inadequate… It's a lot of pressure, for sure.
Tam!!!! I KNOW, right???
What a great job you are doing with this fragile girl. Congratulations.