"The Most Wonderful Time of the Year"? // Gift Swaps

Am I the only person out there who dislikes this time of year? I honestly feel like it's the most depressing time of year. The trees start to die and their pretty colors start to die off. Days grow shorter and the nights become colder. It always puts me in a bad mood and I feel like everyone is the same. Not to mention, the wheels on my wheelchair are freezing and my skin gets so dry. (boo)

I honestly feel like Thanksgiving gets skipped over all the time. I plan on doing a little recap of the things I'm thankful for here soon. I love reading those on other blogs and seeing what people are thankful for. If you've made a thankful blog, link it below so I can go take a look. I just feel like Thanksgiving needs a shout-out too.

Anyways, the day after Halloween, the stores starting playing Christmas music and the ads starting coming out about all the sales. (After working in retail for a good three or four years, I have grown to HATE Christmas music) Christmas time is supposed to be "the most wonderful time of year", but I feel like things have gotten to out of hand lately that nobody really enjoys Christmas for what it was supposed to be anymore. Christmas has became such a money making holiday that people look past what Christmas should be about. My mother and I were talking a few days ago about how this time of year has the highest suicide rate. Now that I think about it, it probably has the highest crime rate too. People get so bent out of shape about trying to buy the best of everything and make sure they have the perfect house to show off to their family. Whatever it may be, I feel this time of year people try so hard to "keep up with the Joneses" (isn't that a saying?!)

This year, my family decided we weren't buying Christmas gifts. We decided as a family we wanted to spend time together, playing games and enjoying time together. We do plan on buying for the babies in my family and we are all getting a small gift for a game we are going to play. There are plenty of reasons behind this but the major one being that this year has been a really rough year for my family. My step dad had a heart attack in January, my brother is going through a nasty divorce, my car wreck and my nana having to be in the hospital, too. There's just a lot that has been going on and we realize that time together is more important than any gifts. Plus, money is tight and it's way to much stress to worry about what to buy everyone.

Not to mention, just yesterday Hostess Brands announced they were shutting down their business. It's sad because I feel like Twinkies were a huge part of my childhood. My older sister used to love Twinkies and I remember our youth leader at church would always give her boxes of them. I think it's more important that we focus on praying for the families of employees of the company. It has to be scary to be losing their jobs at this time of year, especially with the economy being the way it is. I just encourage everyone to pray about it. God is in control and as I always say, He knows far better than we do.

I would love to hear your thoughts about this time of year. Do you love it or does it bring you down too? I feel like people are either for or against it, there isn't really any middle ground. If you're family has any cool traditions they do at Christmas, feel free to share them with me. I would love to hear the fun ideas.

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 I have recently found out about this awesome Secret Santa and I decided to join in on the fun. It has a low spending cost (10-15$) and you fill out a form so that your Secret Santa knows what some items you may like are. If you wanna join in on the fun, just click the link below. You must fill this out by November 20, 2012

  click here to be a part of Blogger Secret Santa
 

I am working on accepting new sponsors. I offer three ad sizes (200x95, 200x120, 200x200) and will be accepting swaps. I have decided to do this because I don't really have a large following yet and I wanna meet some new bloggers. I have already been in contact with a few awesome ladies who are willing to swap. I use PassionFruit and it has made this whole thing a ton easier. What's cool about this site is that it does all the work for you. You have to type in a few things, but the rest is up to the site and it's for a really cheap fee. If you're doing sponsors and not using this site, it's a must.  If you're interested in having your little button on my site, please check out my sponsor page. Remember, all ads are free when you use the code button swap. I am super looking forward to sharing some awesome blogs with my readers. (:

Also, I am still getting rid of some sponsor buttons I have that didn't sell at my benefit. They're also free but if you want, you can donate using the button below my introduction on my main page. All I need from you is an email saying what button design(s) you want and your  mailing address. I will try to get the next order sent out at the start of this week. Click here to find out what designs I have. (I'll be making a video showing them all off soon)

I am super sorry if my site looks a little..strange as of lately. I added a new background and for some reason, blogger keeps erasing it and taking it back to the default layout style, color and background (which throws everything off). If you know how I can fix this, please shoot me an email. Thanks.

I made a Facebook page for cattails and cardigans. Would you be so kind as to "like" it for me? I would super appreciate it. This way you guys can get constant updates on when the site is updated.

I plan on doing a giveaway here soon (at 50 followers), what would you like to win? Shoot me an email (or comment below) and tell me what you would like to win or what you think would be a good idea.