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Word sure seemed to spread fast about my employment problem. I didn't tell anybody directly except my family, and the blog here (but only a couple of people would see it). Nevertheless, we had all kinds of generousity sent our way.
We came home from one night and there was a pile of toys on our front porch. Fortunately, the girls were at one of the Grandparents' house and didn't see them. Jena and I wrapped them up and that constituted a major portion of the Christmas haul. Jena's Grandmother also gave us a substantial amount of cash to be spent on the girls.
Beyond that, we got cash from my Parents, Jena's Grandma, Ringo and Shelley, and an unexpected (and quite large) bit from Jena's sister Brandee and her husband. Not to mention an anonymous Christmas card that came in the mail with cash in it, as well.
When all was said and done we had a better Christmas than many we've had in the past, and our money was freed up for bills (our mortgage company refuses to cut us a break).
I struggled a little bit with the situation at first, because I don't feel "poor", necessarily. Yes, the bad kind of pride. We live in a nice house, have a nice car, eat good food...but Jena pointed out that charity isn't just for the receiver, it's also for the giver. I felt bad that somebody else would give something up so that I could have more...especially since, in my pride, I felt that we were doing OK.
In retrospect, I have to admit that we wouldn't have had much of a Christmas without all the help. It was a great blessing for us. Any of you that contributed...well, I hope you know how grateful we are. It's hard to know who or how to thank somebody for something like that, because a lot of it was given anonymously, and the rest...well, having been on the other end of that equation in the past, I always felt awkward and that my giving was somehow diminished by too much notice or praise. I hope that my gratitude wasn't too understated for those who gave to us. If it was, I hope you realize how grateful I really am.
In the end Jena and I had some money left to divide between ourselves. A couple of nights ago I spent mine on some Legos. The Legos in the store are lame, but lego.com[1] has a bunch of cool sets. Plus, you can design your own kit and they'll ship it to you. Very cool.
Some of the Legoland stuff is crazy cool, but will set you back $150 a kit. That's not what I got, but I'm going to have some fun when what I did order gets here.