As many of you know, one of the quirks of my family that I appreciate is that we no longer buy Christmas gifts for each other. This makes for a relaxing Christmas season. We all get together and hang out and have dinner, but there's little in the way of shopping associated stress. This is done mostly because we are all adults with jobs and bank accounts, and we can buy our own stuff. And as I have had several financially difficult years, I have been really grateful for it.
But now with the birth of SJP!, we could maybe use a little ritual. So Dusie decorated the outside of her house, and asked if we might like to do stockings this year. I am in the spirit, people. I have spent the last 24 hours shopping!
A lot of it was that I had good ideas of what to get people, and I want to see if they like what I selected. And since I know all my family a little more now, it was easier and more meaningful to make purchases.
Since I usually only go shopping once a month*, I am shopped out. And feeling broke, although I know that that is because I spent $200 stocking up on groceries and inadvertently ran into over $100 of clothing that was needed purchases along with the stockings stuff. And also paid my Verizon bill twice. And had a medical bill to pay.
As for the rest of the seasonal activities, I'm woefully behind. It's a bit harder to get into the spirit out here as there is little in the way of a reminder that it's the end of the year, aside from the calendar page and the sight of ripening citrus. I haven't gone to Tempe to look at the lights, I've done no baking, and I bought my latkes at Whole Foods. I have barely listened to any of my holiday CDs and there are no decorations up at Casa Kerry. That makes me a little sad, but I'll see what I can do Wednesday night and the 5 days! I will have off over the holidays.
*I might stop by the grocery and the Target across the street weekly, but anything that requires going to an alternate location or suburban mall is done monthly. I'll explain in another post shortly.
1 comment:
Y'know, this is my fourth Christmas in Arizona, and my experiences with attempting to decorate for it have been one repeated fail. One simply can't when it's 70 degrees outside. The Neighbors were threatening to decorate outside and never got up the gumption to do it.
Post a Comment