Showing Hospitality

I felt lazy all day and wasn't in the mood for cleaning, or much of anything. Then I got a call from my husband, thirty minutes before he was supposed to arrive home. He said his boss was coming to stay with us. Let me tell you, I got my house spic and span in record time! All it took was 20 minutes! I was running through the house picking things up and putting them away, rinsed the dishes and got them going in the dishwasher, got a load of laundry in the wash, wiped down the sink, counter tops, stove, microwave in the kitchen, wiped down the counters, sink, mirror, toilet, scrubbed the inside of the toilet in the bath room, and vacuumed all the carpets. I was literally running around doing all of this, with a rush of energy that I got from stressing, "I can't let anyone see my house in this mess!" I have never cleaned so fast in my life!

I really need to get back to my routines! Then I wouldn't be so stressed when I get unexpected company! Stressing over a dirty house doesn't help you to be hospitable, it makes you avoid people! Being more hospitable is something I'd really like to work on, and I think if I could keep my house clean, it'd be much easier.

Christmas Presents Christmas Debt

One of my Husband's aunt and uncle invited us to Christmas Dinner this year and said that they would be exchanging gifts... MORE GIFTS!!!! I don't know what were gonna do! We already buy for close to 25 people, now we will be adding 7 more!!! This is just so out of control, we have cut back A LOT on Christmas this year because we just don't have the money. Our house burnt back in May and we finally just moved back in a little over a month and a half ago. I wish they just asked us to dinner.... Why did they have to add the "exchanging gifts" part?

Another reason for learning embroidery and crocheting would be for PRESENTS!!! If I knew these skills, then I could make all the women two crocheted dishcloths and an embroidered flour sack. Then I'd probably still feel guilty about not spending money on them. I feel guilty every year about not spending enough money on peoples gifts for Christmas. I get so stressed every year because of the financial burden of Christmas. We were finally out of the credit card debit, until Christmas arrived! As of right now, we only have put a little over a hundred dollars on our credit card. But, now we have 7 more people added to the list! I'm thinking of getting the females a $5 large glass jar candle at walmart. But what about the men? Any suggestions?

Do any of you have this many people to buy for? How do you make ends meet? What kind of presents do you get? This is our fourth year of buying this many gifts, and it seems like there are more people added to the family every year! We don't even buy for everyone that buys for us. We just can't afford it. It gets us into debt every year. The first year my husband and I were married, I was in high school and did not work and he made a GRAND TOTAL of $11,000 that year. That Christmas we ended up $2,000 in debt! We have cut back on Christmas every year since. Last year I had a limit of spending $15 on each person, and we still wrapped up the credit card debt. This year I set my limit at $10 per person, but I did pretty well this year and re-gifted and spent as little as $2 on some gifts. But we still didn't escape the credit debit! Hopefully next year we won't have to use the credit cards....