The Little Drummer Boy

Today I am excited to share with you a wonderful guest post by Janet Morris Grimes. Janet Morris Grimes is a christian wife, mother and writer who has recently relocated through her husband's job transfer to Canton, MI from Nashville, TN. Finding herself unemployed for the first time since she was fifteen years old, she has finally surrendered to her dreams of being a writer, admitting that some dreams chase us down and wrestle us to the ground, until we finally acknowledge their true power.

The Little Drummer Boy

I have this odd little quirk. Call it crazy. Call it focused. Call it annoying. Call it sanity. Call it my attempt to slow down enough to absorb the message of something that matters in a world where we are bombarded with millions of fake and persuasive images daily.

I leave the TV off, and pick one song to listen to on repeat. All. Day. Long.

It's whatever I need to hear on that particular day, and it works for me. The music lays the foundation while the lyrics pierce my soul. I find it comforting; freeing for some reason.

Today, my song of choice was The Little Drummer Boy, by Jars of Clay.

I adored the TV special as a child, until the part where the little lamb was run over by the ox cart. But later, as he is healed and dances to the music of the drummer boy, it caused me to melt every time.
Even back then, I recognized it as the one true Christmas special that had nothing to do with Santa Claus, reindeer, or misfit toys, and found it refreshing. This Christmas special is the only one I remember that focused on giving instead of getting, on Jesus instead of Santa, and on people instead of things.

Today, as I listened to the lyrics, minus the pa rum pa pa pums, I was struck once again by the simpleness of the message of this story.

Come, they told me
A new born King to see
Our finest gifts we bring
To lay before the King
So to honor Him
When we come.

Little Baby
I am a poor boy too
I have no gift to bring
That's fit to give the King
Shall I play for you,
On my drum?

Mary nodded
The ox and lamb kept time
I played my drum for Him
I played my best for Him
Then He smiled at me
Me and my drum.


The Little Drummer Boy is a fictional story, but still so very true.

All Jesus asks from us is whatever we have to offer. For this boy who was hurting, it was a song on a drum. Nothing more. Nothing less.

For me, it is my writing. It is all I have to offer; the only way I know to give back in return.

The song says “so, to honor him, we come.”

So, after listening all day, I get it now.

I will show up, bringing all that I have to offer.

And if he smiles at me? I can think of nothing better than this.

Me and my drum.

Pa rum pa pa pum.

Don’t Go Broke This Christmas!

I am so excited to share this wonderful guest post with you today! Nadia Crum is from the blog A-B-C Frugality. It's a great frugal resource full of tons of information. I urge you to stop over and visit her. Today she brings us some sound advice on how to survive the holidays without going broke. Nadia, thanks so much for sharing wit my readers. You are welcome back anytime!

Don’t Go Broke This Christmas!

Part of the "101 Ways to Save Money During the Holidays and Start the New Year Ahead of The Game" series written by Nadia Crum of A-B-C Frugality. Visit our site to discover hundreds more ways to save this holiday season!

1. Treat December like any other month. Set a budget and stick to it, following your usual pattern of trimming excess spending from flexible expense categories like groceries and entertainment. Include a budget for overall Christmas spending. Account for things like decorations, gifts, excess food and utility costs if you’ll be having guests for an extended stay, gasoline for traveling to and from Holiday events, additional clothing costs if the children will need new outfits for Christmas day, and other miscellaneous costs that would otherwise be assimilated into the “extra spending” category of your budget. If you know exactly how much you have to spend, it will be much easier to stay within your budget.

2. Make a list and check it twice. Decide if there are people that you really need to shop for, and try to pare down your list to only your closest friends and family. Make your list of people to shop for and assign a dollar amount if you haven’t already shopped for them. If you have been shopping throughout the year at sales and clearance events and already have a supply of generic gifts built up, write the assigned gift next to the person’s name along with a brief description of how you plan to personalize the generic gift for that individual. A bath gift basket with free soaps and lotions (from CVS and Walgreens, of course) can easily be personalized for a teenaged niece by throwing in some glitter lipgloss and a nice handmade card; the same basket for your Aunt might be better suited with a candle and a blank journal.

3. Remember to buy yourself a present, too. This may seem counterproductive to many frugalists out there. But research shows that often when we see something we would really like to have, yet deny ourselves, that item often gets purchased regardless and given to someone else because of our impulses. Remembering to treat yourself during this stressful season is important. It doesn’t have to be something big or expensive. A $2.00-after-coupons eyeshadow compact may not be something we’d normally purchase because of the price (my makeup stockpile price is always around $1.00 or less, depending on item/brand), but during the holidays, go a little crazy with that $2.00 and you just might save $50 on impulse mall purchases.

4. Budget your time as well as your money. Not allowing enough time to prepare something or do something can often lead to convenience purchases, which can cost you a lot during the marked-up holiday buying season. For instance, not allowing yourself enough time to make the candied yams from scratch (costing $2.00 total) might lead to sending your husband out to buy a frozen, throw in the oven yam casserole dish, costing $8.00.

5. Don’t overlook the value of intangible gifts. If your budget is tight this season, as many of ours are, consider giving intangible gifts such as babysitting or yardwork help. Handmade gift certificates are a nice way to give the recipient something tangible to open that is representative of your gift of services.

6. Shop prices, not sales. By watching the price of individual items rather than simply running out and purchasing that item because it’s “on sale,” you can save yourself a pretty penny. Sale signs are everywhere this time of the year as a ploy to get you to purchase more, but often, the sale price is only a few pennies less than the regular price of the item. A “sale price” at one store may very well be more expensive than the regular price of that same item at a different store.

7. What’s in it for me? Consider giving charitable donations in the name of the recipient instead of buying them another item that will just clutter a landfill in 6 months. You’ll restore some meaning of Christmas, help the recipient feel honored and charitable, and you’ll get the tax deduction for charitable giving. Just be sure to get the appropriate tax receipt from the organization you donate to.

8. Buy last year’s model. Especially with items like baby gear, manufacturers are pushing the next year’s models of equipment like strollers and play yards beginning in December, so the “last year’s model,” which are indistinguishable from the new models save fabric color or another minute detail, are marked down to 30-40% of the original price.

9. Send postcards instead of cards. Sign up at Vistaprint.com and wait…once or twice a week they have a sale where you can get 100 postcard printed double-sided for only the cost of shipping (usually around $5 or so). While you’re cutting Christmas card costs, consider paring down your card list to only those family and friends whom you regularly stay in touch with. Those in your address book whom you don’t keep in close contact with will be just as happy with an eCard updating them on your family activities.

10. Plastic belongs in the form of a cookie cutter, not a card! Make it a point to shop only with cash. Better still, once you’ve decided on your Christmas gift budget amount, take that amount out of the bank in cash and keep it in an envelope. More people on your list than cash in your envelope? You’ll just have to get creative with gifts. Avoid using credit at all costs, and the only bill you’ll be receiving in January is a “bill of frugal health.”

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Nadia is a young Army wife and mother of two small children who enjoys shopping for the hottest deals and researching ways to save her readers $1000s of dollars each and every month. Her family lives a fun frugal lifestyle and she is pursuing her degree in Education while her husband bravely serves our country. To find out more about a frugal and fun lifestyle of abundance, visit her blog at A-B-C Frugality.

Holiday Gift Guide 2009

Can you believe it's already November? I can't. It seems the holidays are just around the corner and I am pretty much ready. What about you? Do you have all your holiday shopping done? Are you ready to cook, decorate, and spend time with your loved ones? I myself cannot wait!

I am so excited to be bringing you my holiday gift guide over the next month. I hope to give you some great gift ideas, as well as chances to win some of the wonderful products featured. I hope you will subscribe or visit often to see what product is featured each day. Be sure to enter the great giveaways as well.

Thanks for being a Ramblings reader! I look forward to sharing my holiday finds with you!