Against the Spirit of the Season / What's in Your Wallet?

My husband and I gave each other our Solstice presents early this year.

I was 'doing math' last Sunday. In our household, 'doing math' means adding up the bills that are due, the minimum payments, the monthly payments, looking at what we have coming in, what absolutely must go out right away, and finally, our total debt amount.

After the situation was thoroughly assessed, I turned to Mike and told him the news.

We had a choice to make. After we pay everything that's due, we have enough left over to buy each other presents, or pay off a credit card bill completely.

Against the spirit of the season, we chose to pay off the credit card. I called the company and asked for a total payoff amount and made it happen over the phone. Then I wrote "PAID IN FULL" on the remittance slip and put it under the Yule tree.

Since then, we smile and make happy reference to it. "We paid off a credit card bill. Happy Solstice, Honey." And when we watch television and see all the 'must-have-hot-items-for-Christmas' commercials, we just smile to ourselves or at each other and sit content that we got what we really wanted for the holidays -- a little bit closer to our dream of being debt free.