When I was a kid, Christmas was consistently a huge deal in my family. Even though our father passed away while every one of us kids were still quite young, my mother still made every effort to give us all sorts of presents & just be able to celebrate at Christmas. She would even take hour jobs so she could make ends meet & still buy gifts. Both of us would often scrimp & save on other things, such as the a/c or the heating. In summer, my Dad would set the control device quite high so the cooling system would not run all afternoon long. It was never super comfortable, however it was consistently bearable. The same thing was tploy in the winter. Both of us did not absolutely need the heating system all that often, however when every one of us did, Dad set the control device quite low, again in an effort to save on heating & cooling costs. When I look back on it now, it does not bother me that every one of us were conservative with our a/c & heater. In fact, I am still that way as an adult. I do not believe in spending too much money, & utilities are genuinely a huge cost each month. I do remember one year when I was still pretty young – perhaps I was around fifteen years outdated – & my oldest sister & her fiance were being genuinely sneaky around Christmas time. I knew they were up to something, however I did not think what it was. It turned out that they decided to pay the heating & cooling costs for numerous months for my Dad as her Christmas present. They came & got the bill, which was a month behind, & paid it all the way up. My Dad cried, & that was absolutely the first time I realized how difficult my mom’s life was.