Christmas has always been my favorite holiday.? I love the whole month of December, in fact.? I have my birthday in the first part of the month, and Christmas and New Years at the end.? So fun and festive!? I love the decorations, the music, the family and the fun.? But lately, in recent years, Christmas has lost some of it’s glow.? I find myself getting anxious as the holidays near and I know that 99% of that is due to shopping for gifts.
Our entire country has gotten way out of control when it comes to Christmas gifts.? Suddenly, a $2,000 plasma screen tv is a perfectly normal Christmas present.? So when you fail to purchase that for your family or somesuch, you feel like a prize heel.? People spend way way way too much for Christmas anymore.? And plainly put?? We just can’t afford to “keep up”.? We don’t want to “keep up”.? What does it say about Christmas when you feel you have to spend thousands of dollars each year?
We have a lot of family to buy for.? We have “drawings” for the adults on both sides, so we only have to purchase two gifts for each side.? That helps.? But we have six nieces and nephews on my husband’s side and 3 nieces and 1 nephew on my side to buy for.? Now, on my side all the kids are 8 and under so buying them gifts is fun and easy to do.? On my husband’s side, they’re all about 11 and older.? The oldest being 19. ? That makes is a little more difficult, especially when we aren’t sure what to get for them in the first place.? Last year we bought “family” gifts and I think we’ll do the same this year.? Frankly, I think there should be an age when we stop buying presents for the kids altogether.? In fact, I’d be more than fine with doing away with the drawing, period.? On both sides.? Focus on buying for the kids while they’re still young and have stars in their eyes.? That’s when it’s fun.
Now, I have this ginormous shopping list that I haven’t even started to tackle yet.? I have a feeling that Kile and I won’t be getting presents for each other at all this year (which we’ve done before and that’d more than okay).? I just don’t see how we can manage it.? Let’s not even talk about shipping.? I’m thinking everything is going to be purchased online and shipped directly because we all know what a mess of a time I had with shipping things last year.? Yikes!
Just thinking about this is making me feel ill.? I would love to get back to what I love about Christmas.? To find the simple joy in driving around town looking at Christmas lights without having to worry about getting one more present for yet another person.? Is this what being an adult is like?? Because if so, I want to be a kid again.? I want to find the joy in Christmas.
