With two days until Christmas and a winter storm headed toward Minneapolis, I have groceries to buy, presents to wrap, baking to finish, and family to enjoy. As a result, you will probably see fewer posts than normal in the next few days. I welcome and encourage you, however, to continue the dialogue on the Christmas Open Mic post and elsewhere at Pocket Your Dollars.
For us, every Christmas is special, but this year it’s doubly special. It’s fun to watch Olivia experience her first Christmas, which will be quickly followed by her first birthday. Victoria (age 2-1/2) is finally old enough to truly enjoy our family traditions. She also loves being part of Jesus’ birthday party. At Jesus’ birthday party, like any other, we are thankful for the one whose birth we celebrate while we enjoy the people around us.
Marco and I spent time this morning praying for each one of you and your families. We pray you can set aside the stress, financial pressure, fears and disagreements with your loved ones for at least the next few days. Choose instead to relax and enjoy yourself. Take mental snapshots of the moments that touch your heart and treasure them in the weeks ahead.
I love and appreciate you, am thankful for your faithfulness to read Pocket Your Dollars and am continually blessed that you have chosen to be part of this money-saving community. Thank you and have a very merry and low-stress Christmas!
Love,
Marco, Carrie, Victoria and Olivia Rocha
Merry Christmas Carrie & family!
Thank you for all you do for all of us to save a buck!
God Bless!
Tina
Thank you Carrie for the wonderful and uplifting message. You have a Merry Christmas as well and Happy (early) Birthday to Olivia. Enjoy your family time!
Thank you for all you do Carrie. You truly are a Godsend to each and every one of us! Merry Christmas and God bless!
Thanks for your sweet words, Carrie. I am so thankful for you and all you do to help each of us save money! I believe with you for the perfect outcome regarding your job and know that every need of yours will be met – superabundantly! :)
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas Carrie! God Bless you and your family in 2010!
Thanks for all you do!
Thanks Carrie and Merry Christmas! You’ve put together a really great resourse here and have helped me save hundreds of dollars over the last several months. God bless!
Thank you for your blog and sharing. Wishing you a happy holiday. I am going to spend the next two days enjoying the wonder of the holidays through the eyes of my children.
Thank you for all you do Carrie! Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas! I am so thankful for you and your ministry, and so grateful that you know and give glory to Jesus Christ who is the reason why we are able to take our next breath! Thank you for making it known, I know Jesus is so proud of you and all you’re doing for people like us. Love and Blessings to your family—and seriously, you should take some time off completely–we’ve got our own busy-ness to tend to and the open mic if we REALLY need it. Thank you!
My husband and I cannot believe we found your website where first of all you help us save money, secondly you preach being financially free (which we -at age 27! are except for a mortgage we are paying down) and most importantly you are a Christian woman!
You truly are a blessing Carrie! Know that I also am praying for you and your family, that you have time to enjoy them with such a busy schedule and for their support to you in all that you are doing.
One more note, we too have a 2 1/2 year old and are more excited for this Christmas than ever! We might even bake a birthday cake for Jesus this year =) ENJOY this special time with your family!!! Merry Christmas Rochas!
Merry Christmas to you Carrie, and to all the PYD folks!
I love that you have a birthday party for Jesus. I like to try and have a birthday cake for dessert instead of pie or what ever. Merry, merry Christmas and may this next year be full of God’s grace and love.
God bless you and your family. Thanks for all you do, I save so much money with your help!
Merry Christmas and God bless you – Holly
Merry Christmas! Thank you for all you do for each and every one of your readers; you deserve some peaceful relaxation and a very Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you and your family! Thank you for all that you do for all of us!
This year will be extra exciting for us since our 2 1/2 yr old daughter Madysen also will be able to understand more of what is going on and what Christmas is all really about (Jesus’ Birth)and we will also enjoy our son Brysen’s (4 months old) first Christmas too!
Merry Christmas! Thanks for all the great deals!
Thank you for all you do Carrie, you are truly a blessing to my family. God bless you and your family!
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas and God bless you and your family!
Merry Christmas to you and your family! :)
BTW, do you have a relative named Joann? I used to work with someone named Joann Rocha. . .
Kelly
Merry Christmas, Rocha Family!
As the sentiments above have mentioned I too am so grateful for all you do and especially LOVE the fact that you are a true believer. Everybody needs more role models like you in their lives.
On one hand, I have two teenagers who aren’t really into the Christmas spirit (I’m praying that tonight they’ll get the hint!!) and a 3 year old who’s running around the house singing ” Happy Birthday to Jesus”. Love it! Love it! Enjoy your darling little Girls!
Merry Christmas to you and your family, too! It’s been fun communicating with you and learning from you. This year has been a wonderful year for my family, too!
Merry Christmas! Hope you have a wonderful time with your family.
Merry Christmas and blessings to you and your family. We are all so thankful for everything you put into this site. (I think we will be under our monthly grocery budget this month–given that it’s December and I do a ton of baking and entertaining, WOW!) Merry Christmas to all your faithful readers, too. After reading posts and comments on other sites, I realized how thankful I am that everyone’s comments are always so positive and supportive here. Checking in here is truly a part of my day that I look forward to. A thousand thank yous!
Merry Christmas to you and your family. You have a beautiful family!! Thanks for all the tips and “legwork” you have already done for all of us to save money. You make it very easy. I have told alot people about this site. It is great!!
Merry Christmas and many blessings to you and your family. Thanks for the hope and encouragement you give. Pj
Merry Christmas! Thank you for the many blessings you’ve added to so many families!
Hopefully you’re away from this site for a bit, enjoying Jesus’ birthday and family time!
:)
Merry Christmas to you and your family Carrie! Thanks for all you do:)
Happy Holidays to you and yours Carrie! I have to say that PYD has made this holiday season a lot less stressful than it usually is for me. With the money I have saved using your shopping lists over the past 6 months, I was able to complete my Christmas shopping without breaking the bank and stressing out about how I was going to make everything work as the money ran out. Not only that, I have collected an abundance of free or nearly free items to take to my humane society and will be going through my pantry to find things to take to the food shelf before the end of next week. It is so true that it is better to give than to receive, even more so at this time of the year!
I have been spreading the word about PYD to my friends. And I have told many strangers who are in awe of my savings in the check-out line to go to PYD to learn how they can save too. Your tips and the input of the PYD community are invaluable.
Please don’t take time away from your holidays to try and get postings on the website! You need to enjoy your family, as do all the PYD readers, over the next couple of days. The savings will be great next week so everyone will live if you have a couple days off.
I hope all the PYD community has a safe and happy Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you and your family. Thank you for all the work you do to help us all. God Bless – Angie
Carrie,
THANK YOU for all you do for us! Have a very Merry Christmas. I’m sure I can speak for a lot of people when I say we look forward your return..but you too need some vacation time ;)
Merry Christmas to you and your family too, Carrie! You have been a huge blessing to our family this year with all your money saving tips. Our Christmas is much less stressful financially than it has ever been (dare I say stress-free?), and I am so thankful for that. Enjoy a wonderful Christmas and New Years with your family. We always sing Happy Birthday to Jesus on Christmas too, and have some cake. What a fun tradition it is with our kids. God bless you!!!
Wow didos to all the above comments. You have truly changed my life with all the helpful things you do. I love this website and find encourgement in it every day to allow me to Pocket MY Dollars. I also appreciate the fact you said you were a Christian on here that means alot. Merry Christmas Carrie we all wish you the best . Karma is good.
Thank you Carrie for all that you do and for your beautiful message. I really appreciate it! Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas, Carrie. I will echo everyone else on here in saying thanks for all that I have learned in the past few months and for all that you do every week.
It’s especially nice to learn that you are a woman of faith too. :)
Enjoy the holidays!!
Carrie,
That is a beautiful holiday photo of your family, thank you for sharing! I love coming to your site for no nonsense advice and great deal ideas.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas! Enjoy this time with your family and thanks for all the tips throughout the year which has allowed me to grow my savings account!
Carrie,
Thanks for sharing your great savings ideas with us. You make it SO easy to save money! I thought I was doing okay on my own but your site is truely amazing! Enjoy your holidays with your wonderful family!! God Bless you all!!
Merry Christmas and God Bless you Rocha Family!!!
Bless you and your family for helping so many. May God watch over you always.
Carrie – thank you for all the HARD work you put into your site. I know it’s hard sometimes (used to blog regularly) and there are negatives to go along with the positives. I really appreciate your efforts and can’t thank you enough. God bless you and your family for this. Have a wonderful Christmas!
Carrie, thank you for this website and thank you for praying for us. What a tremendous blessing. I hope you and your family had the kind of Christmas you prayed for for all of us.