Christmas presents.. and christmas.. period.

See now if I was younger all you would need is a simple bow!

 

thats really awesome. damn, i wish i'd thought of that. maybe next year. : /

 

It's funny how some of the rest of the family are responding to it... granted there is some history behind their reactions but they are looking at my sister's attitude as being less than charitable.. like how dare she think she's better than us?

I missed out on about six years of family drama having been placed in a foster home when I was 14 and now I'm counting the blessings of having spent some time on the outside. I look at the request at face value and have honored her wishes.

 

To me that is crazy, why not let her have that wish. I mean how cool would it be to get a card that said something like "a donation to ___ has been made in your name from ____" thats cool!

 

Well there is some history and I can see where some folks are coming from but even if her intentions aren't the most charitable, why let it spoil your mood? Being somewhat of an outsider I have the luxury of just letting some shit blow over. My family is nuts on both sides... more prevalent on mom's side though. People being "funny" about trivial shit and not speaking to someone because of the STUPIDEST reasons. I see this in myself and it's frightening.

 

we're flying out to my mom's house for a good ol' family kegger. mom's dying to make us her new recipe for hot toddys. she'll likely have them in a thermos for us as soon as she picks us up from the airport. we'll need it.

 

i love hot toddys
sounds like a sweet time kc

 

Nope. It's a hotel, so they NEVER close no matter what. I opened on Thanksgiving, too, and he gave me $10 for doing it, and I don't mind opening on Christmas, because I have my family stuff to do that night. And he said to me, "I can't do it on Christmas because I want to spend time with my family." So I said, "Well, you aren't the only one with family, ya know!"

 

I like Christmas.

I like seeing old friends that have spread over the country return for Christmas.
And my family, which I don't live in the same city as.
And Christmas gifts are more fun to give than receive. I tend to buy gifts for a lot of people, but I don't really worry about money either. Wasn't built that way.

 

i was ready to fucking choke a bitch at the mall

 

I agree with YankNBurn.

I only buy for people I care about. And my friends get me awesome gifts!

 

i got all ,y shopping done in 3 hours. it was easy.

 

Our christmas is on 7 jan so is stil far but we don't do things like buying presents or not yet, meybe that is part of the capitalistic society which we are still building, or it is because we are ortodox I don't knew, I think is stupid to buy present to someone just because it is christmas you can buy presents when you like it is beter it is from your heart. We usually have Lunch together and whish eachoter happines, love and so on....we selebrate the birth of Jesus we don't have to buy presents...... that is what hapens here in Macedonia.
peace to all

 

Revisiting the topic- am I the only one who read "Christmas.. period" and though that someone's aunt Flo was hanging her red ornament for the holiday?

 

yea i thought about that...

but then i wanted to share how i was gonna choke a bitch

 

that was my first thought too

 

Yes at first I thought the "P" word was there for her Christmas, lol but I read and then was sorta glad it was not. I could not have held back from comments that would end up in my mind.

 

I completely understand how you're feeling Penny. I've been struggling quite a bit this year with the whole ridiculous commercialism of the season as well. It seems achingly silly in some ways, irritatingly insignificant, why must so much emphasis be put on the mad rush of the holidays, finding the perfect gift, spend, spend, spend? And for what? For those acquired gifts to be placed in drawers, cupbards, closets, accumulating dust and forgotten about within the blink of an eye? It seems incredibly wasteful in so many ways.

However, yes, I do partiicpate in the madness. Mainly because it's simply EXPECTED within my family. I mean, it's one thing to do for my children, I love it, wouldn't dream of not having gifts under the tree for them, it's just everyone else *hangs head in guilt ridden shame*. And I feel like such a horrible, uncaring person for not wanting to spend money on everyone else, I feel like such an ungrateful, despicable human being because I would rather take the money that would have been frivilously spent and saved it for a rainy day, so-to-speak. My lack of wanting to financially spend has nothing to do with the love for the gift recipients, it has to do with my penny pinching mind set and frugal spending. I don't want anything for myself. I don't expect it, I don't need it, and I feel badly when loved ones spend their hard earned fiscal means on myself.

So I continuously struggle with immense guilt this time of year with all of the conflicting emotions I posess towards the holiday.

That being said, all of my expected gifts have been purchased, however not wrapped as of yet. I have the mentality of the beloved Scarlett O'Hara, as in I'll worry about it tomorrow.

 

Well, yes, but there's this thing called politeness. Unfortunately. If I don't send cards to colleagues of work, for instance, they would not think very nicely about me. It's just meaningless routine, though...
I did send a few nice cards to people I really care about, though.

 

Same case here in my family... But what can I do, dad should be pleased. It's not such a big deal after all and I don't want to spend the rest of my life regretting I didn't do this for him...