Last year one of our family Christmas gifts was a bucket.  Not just any bucket.  Not just the kind of bucket that as you all now know, gives me anxiety.  This was a happy bucket with $200 in it...the start of our Disneyland fund.  The older kids have been talking about Disneyland for years now, with oh, maybe a hint of bitterness in their little voices.  Saying things like, "so and so's family is going to Disneyland, and they've already been there TWICE." Or "when are we ever going to go to Disneyland?" in a way that somehow made me feel like I'd been accused of not feeding my children.  Yes, they have a way.

So Reas and I decided it was time.  Not that we don't like it ourselves or that we were intentionally avoiding it.  We were just waiting for the right time.  You know, like when there weren't too many little little kids who would be more miserable than appreciative,  time off from work and school, and let's face it, money.  I find it kind of ironic that for the cost of letting our family experience the happiest place on earth, we could buy a used car...maybe a pretty crappy one, but still a car.

We told the kids we'd go to Disneyland when our bucket was filled with enough cash to pay for 5 tickets for 2 day passes, parking, hotel for 2 nights, and gas to get there.  Needless to say, Disneyland felt like a long way off.  So, the saving began.  Pennies, dimes, dollars...everything spare went in the bucket.  Occassionally, the kids would dump it all out and count,  literally taking a good hour...plenty of time for improving their math skills (hidden perks to our plan).  They'd  then announce some pretty huge number in the hundreds thinking surely that'd be enough.  We'd say it wasn't, they'd put it all back in, and we'd keep saving.  These guys were pretty great sports about the whole thing actually.  Then, a few months into the saving we had a great surprise.  Disneyland was doing their Give a Day Get a Day program, which in the matter of 2 hours for a fun little community service project we were up 3 free tickets.  Blessings for trying to stay out of debt.

I've tried to pass on my thriftiness to my kids.  I've never hidden the fact that things cost money, that comes with hard work, and sometimes we have to make hard choices when deciding whether to spend our money or not.  They're aware of sales, checking out thriftstores first, and looking for green tags while walking down the cereal aisle.  I hope they're learning early how to be smart and that it will stay with them as they get older.

It really only took about 4 months to have our bucket bursting with more than enough to pay for our trip.  I was pretty amazed actually, how fast we could save when everyone was committed to the plan. 

Our trip was within reach, which was great, but more importantly throughout the whole process came other teaching opportunities.  One day a couple knocked on our door.  They had a story, like they all do.  Somehow they'd been stranded here without a car, not knowing anyone, and having nowhere to sleep. They asked if I had any work they could do for any kind of small payment in return.  Something about this couple was different.  My heart ached for them.  I could tell they were honest, and were truly just trying to survive while holding onto some degree of self-respect.  I let them sweep my garage and front porch.  Sweeping didn't really need to be done, but that was all I could think of for them to do.  I went inside to get money, and panicked when I realized I didn't have any cash.  The kids were home from school at the time,  so I went to them and asked how they'd feel about giving up some of their Disneyland cash to this family who needed it more then we did.  It was a pretty substantial amount of money that I was asking from them, especially considering they're kids.  I was a little worried that they'd not want to, and I'd end up having to talk them into it.  To my joy, they were excited about sharing.  It made them happy.  It made me happy.  After the couple left we talked about how it made us feel to be generous with others and how important it is to help when we can.  We talked about how Heavenly Father must be so happy that we did our best to serve his children.  It was a great moment.  I went in my room and cried a little.  Cried for that couple, but grateful that my children had the opportunity to make a choice, and grateful that they made a good one.

Later this week we're heading to Disneyland.  We've been looking forward to it for almost a year.  I'm so glad we did it this way.  It required a little sacrifice on everyone's part.  Some patience and some work.  But we can all feel good knowing it's 100% paid for and that every member of this family worked to get us there.