We are now supposed to talk about CHRISTMAS! (Woot, woot!)
I don't like the holidays. I love the holidays. (That's what my daughter just said. And then her brother said, "If you love it, then why don't you marry it? Ah, siblings.) I love the twinkly lights. The smell of cinnamon and evergreen. The holiday parties and festivities. The music. Oh, the music! Holy hallelujah!
But do you know what makes me lose the holiday spirit quicker than you can say "My sister-in-law makes banana split jam?" CHRISTMAS SHOPPING.
Yes, I loathe Christmas shopping. I'm skittish in big crowds. I'm not a fan of spending money. I'm highly indecisive. Can you see how Christmas shopping is not my forte? (What is my forte, I ask of you? What. Is. It. Question mark, question mark, question mark.)
Also, this year's Black Turkey really annoyed me. Did you know that WalMart employees had to show up to work at 3:00 on Thanksgiving? Did you know that by Friday--as in Black Friday--the sales were over and the store was back to normal? Did you know that the good people in the kingdom northward don't have Black Friday, and therefore invaded our regions with their CARGO TRAILERS to load up on loot? I thank them for supporting our economy. (But I wait to thank them until they are back across the border.) (If I write that teeny, it's not offensive and therefore will not cause an international incident.)
I understand the thrill of the hunt for awesome bargains--I too enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when I get something for next-to-nothing. But I don't understand the need to buy everything. Do we really need SO much stuff? It makes me sad when my kids make their enormous Dear Santa letters with outlandish items, like an ATV. In 12 YO's defense, he did ask for it for the entire family. However, he didn't specify the size, so I will likely have Santa bring him this:
My children should realize that they need to be specific. Details, details.
Two children asked for life-sized stuffed animals, which I'll admit, are much better than real life animals. But then I found this online:
For just $490, this life sized goat can be yours! His name is Dan and he even has udders! (I'm confused. Are you?) You want to buy him, no? Click here. Tell them Lori sent you.
Who spends that kind of loot on a toy that does absolutely nothing? Shouldn't it at least be mechanical? Although then it would just run out of batteries or break and die in a couple of weeks, so never mind!
What have you seen out there that is the biggest waste of your hard-earned money? (Or your hard-stolen money, whichever may be the case.) I personally vote for the Snuggie, even though it's been out for a few years and even though it's not going to cause a huge dent in your wallet. But hello, why not just wear your robe backwards? Duh.
We don't go for any of that nonsense around here.We just give the kids socks and underwear. They get giddy with excitement. Just kidding, kinda. We do give them NEEDS as well as a few fun WANTS. But still, by the time we get all of the gifts under the tree, it looks like wrapping paper ralphing. What works for you? How do you keep your loved ones (mainly children) from being Greedy McCreedy at Christmas time? Do you find that you become Greedia McCreedy? I do. The best way for me not to be worldly is to not go shopping, yet, when I have to go shopping, I see all the sparkly stuff and I think I WANT I WANT I WANT. How do you avoid this?
And how do you find the perfect something for each person on your list? Miss Paulashawn is the queen of thoughtful gifts. She even contacted a little bike shop in Germany that shared her surname to find a personalized gift for her Shawn. Isn't she sweet? I'm more of a last second, it was on sale, so here you go kind of gal. Teach me. How do I be more thoughtful? (Please don't tell me that the first step is to get a brain, because that could really be a problem.) Do you have a favorite thoughtful gift that you have given or received? The only one that we totally nailed was when we found the sign that was on my grandparent's gas station, bearing our surname, at a antique gas memorabilia place and gave it to my padre. That was a fantastic find. I hope I am willed that sign. (Hint hint)
Let's talk giftage! How do you do it? Tutor me. Help me not become a Grinch. Or a Who. (Ward party theme this year! I'm lovin it.)
We'll only have 2 regular posts this month: this week and the next. Prize winner will be announced Tues, December 17th. So don't delay: comment today!
10 comments:
I'm with you on Christmas shopping. I enjoy it for my hubby and now especially for Brae (really because it just gives me a legitimate excuse to buy her cute things). But I hate it for the extended family! There's so many people and you never know what to get! (I'm sorry, extended family) I love how Steve's family does it, because there's so many of them. Usually it's just a simple little gift for the family, but if it just ends up being a Christmas card, that's okay too. I told my sister last week that after her and my brother get married, we're just doing family gifts and that's it. Games, movies, that sort of thing. She was all for it. However, I did find the perfect gift for her this year that I'm pretty excited about. And for Steven.
My biggest problem though, is not being able to keep them a secret. I get so excited about it that I want to share it immediately. I think my brain about burst when I had to keep his iPad a secret for his birthday.
For our kids (once Brae starts learning what Christmas is), we're going to have a 4 present rule- something you need, something you want, a book, and something you can wear. This year is an exception, because we didn't get her something she needed and a couple somethings that she can wear :)
Nicole: your brother and sister are marrying each other? What the what? Oh, never mind, I read it wrong. My reading comprehension is sub par, which is why I've never read Judy Blume. So are you saying that you are spoiling Brae this year, but then you are going to stop? How will she feel about this? JK. Babies are so fun to buy for. And girls. I should have had more than one! (girls that is. No more babies.) I love the 4 gift rule. That's perfect. I must implement. I might need to not give any gifts at all this year so that they will be appreciative of 4 next year. This is going to be a great Christmas!
I like to do all my shopping online because 1: I find exactly what I want and 2: I don’t have a license so I’d have to get someone to drive me around everywhere. I don’t have to worry about greedy kids because I don’t even know a man who would want to parent those precious souls with me. I’m generally not greedy because I have all the expensive gifts that I need and so the most expensive things I want are a good toaster and a label-maker. I should probably get a new CD case for my growing collection of DVDs… It’s not that I go shopping and think I want because I mostly want movies and candy (so I guess it’s the IWANT thing when I’m grocery shopping…) but I like to keep movie ticket stubs in my journal so looking through that I see all the movies I enjoyed in the past year and wish for them. Then I need a bigger CD case and label maker to keep a good record of which DVDs I own. Yes, I have an addiction o couch potato-ness. I know there was this thing that my brothers wanted really badly and it was a total scam but I can’t even remember what it was called. It was something to do with moving this ball with your mind. It snowed a foot today. Doesn’t snow like that back home. Back to homework and final projects. Well Merry Christmas. See ya next week after one of my final projects is due.
Devree: Even the best toaster in the world can't take the mold off the bread. And please tell me the label maker you are asking for is a Hello Kitty one, otherwise I'd be worried that you don't know how to enjoy all the finer things in life. A foot of snow? You have surpassed us by far! Our Christmas isn't very white so far. Just cold. But it's like they say, "I'm dreaming of a cold Christmas." Good luck on your final projects!
The biggest waste of Christmas money I ever spent was when I bought a magazine subscription for my husband online--I think I spent about $29 or so. My credit card got charged, and I never saw the gift. I've always wondered if it was because I entered a bogus email address because I didn't want them to spam me. Still, I found no way to contest it, so I lost out. Grrrr...
One of the best and most thoughtful gifts I've ever received was for my birthday. It was from my husband. It was a GPS! I have the world's worst sense of direction, and it has made such a huge difference in my life. He got it for me right after we moved to PA, a couple years ago. It has saved me from all of the zillions of panic attacks I used to have on the road anytime I had to go anywhere new. I still love it so much :). It's too bad we didn't think of getting one earlier, but anyway, it's my favorite.
One of my favorite gifts that I've ever given was a couple of little tiny nativity sets that I made out of Sculpey clay. I made one for each of our sets of parents.
I think it's interesting that our Christmas plan kind of matches Nicole's this year too...we want to give each of our kids one book, one or two somethings from their wish list, and one big surprise gift. We're taking a little family weekend trip this year to a fun place (a time share thing with an indoor water park), so we're telling our kids that's part of our big Christmas celebration. In the past we've given our kids about 10 gifts each, and every year I try to tell Jeff I want to simplify--give more quality and less quantity. Hopefully we manage it this year.
One thing's for sure...I love Christmas, and everything about it!!! Ok wait--there are a FEW Christmas songs on the radio I could do without...but still. LOVE LOVE LOVE. MERRY Christmas!!!
Oh, she's always spoiled :) I forgot to add that we also have a spending limit for each person. And we've managed to stay at that spending limit for her. It's just insane, by the time we have 4 kids and include ourselves, Christmas still turns into almost a grand. Once she gets a little older, I also want to do some sort of secret santa cash jar for another family, to keep service and the real reason for Christmas in mind. So we have to enforce not spoiling her too much now, so it doesn't come back to get us later ;)
My mom is always saying every year that she wants to simplify gifts for us and never does. (Even though we tell her every year that she's spending way too much on gifts for her adult children!)
Jenna: Did you give them a fake address as well as a fake email? Did you give ME a fake email and it's really not you I've been exchanging letters with all t his time? I'm so confused. I'm also excited for your family Christmas trip. Sounds amazing: almost as good as trip to the Bahamas. Can we plan a BlogAway reunion there for next Christmas. That would be the best. I'll buy. (I'll buy the pina coladas, that is. (non-spiked, of course.)) Is it the song "Santa Baby" that bugs you? That one always bugs me. What kind of girl do you have to be to try and seduce Santa? Sheesh. Some people.
Nicole: How are you so wise? You could be my Christmas manager. Do you want to? I'll send you all my lists and my debit card. (Which has been compromised BTW. Stores all over Western Montana had their systems hacked. Can you say yikes? Maybe your mom will have to scale back this year because her debit card has probably been hacked as well. All of Western MT will be giving pieces of gum for gifts this year. Our breath will be fresh!) I'll also send you so crafts I need to make. And some cookies to make. You've got me covered, right?
Yes, Santa Baby is an annoying song, but less-so when Michael Buble sings it :). The one that made me cringe this week and change the station was the Beach Boys one, I guess it's called, "Merry Christmas Baby." I also don't like "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." What a waste of notes. (Hee hee.)
We try to keep things pretty simple around here, but it never seems to be simple enough. Kids get 3 gifts- sibling, santa, parents plus their stocking. I don't like shopping, so I try my hardest to avoid it altogether. Online shopping helps tremendously. Some people are sooo easy to find the perfect gift for and others UUUGGGHHH! I also find my husband doesn't always agree with my thought of a perfect gift so it becomes complicated. Last minute shopping makes me Grinchy, must be preparedso I can enjoy those last days before Christmas. My ideal Christmas would be homemade gifts (which would include letters) or gifts of service only and lots of sharing of treats. No shopping, no crowds. I WANT syndrome can only be helped by never going to the store. It takes such self control, there is just too much stuff!
Jenna: Yes, Michael Buble makes everything better. He should have been on the Sound of Music last night. I do like Rocking Around the Christmas Tree when the 5/6 grade band plays it. :)
Bigskyboys: I think the only way Christmas could simpler would be to load up all the kids and spend the week in the Bahamas where they don't even have evergreen trees! (Can you tell I've had enough of the cold already, and it's only December!)Aren't you glad I'm letting you help make homemade gifts that will sit on a table and be admired by all? You're welcome! I'm a good friend! :)
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