The good with the bad

On Friday, 15 people were fired at Chris' work. Some of them were good friends of Chris's and he may never see them again. There was no party, no fanfare. One man worked there for 15 years, and he just walked out the door. Another man has 3 kids at home. They got good severance packages, but it is still such a hard time of year to be without a job. And in their job market, they probably won't find any work. They will most likely need to find new careers. Thankfully, Chris probably has job stability with what he does.

The environment that we are in right now leaves no room for comfort. No one is immune. You think you are safe in your job and that you can handle things financially, and in a moment it can be gone. We just have to be grateful for what we have and take each day as it comes. Of course, prayer never hurt either. One silver lining, though, is I think it helps us re-examine what really is important. And it helps us be mindful of where our money goes. Chris and I are always trying to decide where our money should go and where it shouldn't. Heck, we drove an hour away just to get a Christmas tree for $25! Maybe we are cheapskates, but we're making it work and everyone's happy. It just saddens me when I see people that work so hard to make it work just like us, and then the rug is slipped out from under them. But we move forward. There's always hope.

Onto lighter news, the tree we got is beautiful...and HUGE! It was $25 for any tree, so we got a big one. Too big. Our tree stand is even too small for it. So we have paint cans and axes holding down the stand so it doesn't topple over! Actually, just when I wrote that, I saw the tree tipping. So we just screwed a hook into the wall so we could tie the tree up and anchor it. We used a green ribbon at least! I think it's not just that it's huge, it is also heavier with branches on one side. Oh well. It really is pretty!

Tomorrow Chris has the day off and we have a gift certificate to Panera's we're going to use. We CANNOT wait! Thomas has a new friend that's coming over this week. We have 2 Christmas parties too, although one is for Chris' work which we may not go to now. And on Sunday, my sister and brother-in-law are coming to visit-yeah! So spending time with friends and family again, what this time of year is really about. Merry Christmas!