Christmas Blues
Xmas has gained a little of the fun back since having a kid. I love to watch his face as he opens things. He is so easy to please. He loves everything. I guess I’m just tired of the same old same old.
This is our Xmas tradition: we’ll be up early with Jonathan, open our gifts, go downstairs to J’s Mom’s place, open more gifts, have breakfast, get dressed, go to my parents house and open even MORE gifts. After watching the gifts being openned, we watch my mom slave over the stove to put out an enormous feast, 1/2 of which will not be eaten. Last year, for entertainment, my bratty 10 year old neice decided she didn’t like the doll my dad had given her. She wanted the basketball that my son had received. Instead of being gracious about it, she had a royal hissy fit, embarrassing everybody else in the room, and making my dad feel like shit. He ended up “buying” the doll from her for $20 and giving the doll to J’s Mom. So, now I’m ultra paranoid about what the hell to give to this obnoxious brat. I don’t want the gift I give her to be the cause of another tantrum.
It’s not that I don’t like gifts…I love them… when it’s something I need or want. It’s the I-don’t-know-what-to-get-you-so-i’ll-buy-you-a-candle/useless ornament- type of gifts I hate. Those are the types of gifts I don’t like recieving. My brother tends to buy like that. That is buying and giving for the sake of buying and giving. The way I feel, if you don’t know my likes or dislikes or personality to be able to buy me a present I’ll enjoy, I’d rather have no present at all. But that’s just me.
When I buy a gift, I do honestly try to come up with something that I feel that person would truly enjoy. My coworker for example, LOVES soccer. So I bought her this cool remote control soccer game. The remotes control two runners, and they kick the ball. I think she and her family will have a blast playing with it. I could have got her an ornament that she could set on a shelf, and have to dust. But I don’t work like that.
My brother and sister in law have a closet that they fill with things they buy all year long, and come Xmas or birthdays, they just open the door and whatever falls out is your gift. Lots of thought went into that. They can keep those. And I told my brother that a few weeks ago. I suggested we stop exchanging gifts. I’m sick of decorative candles, fountains etc.
I think the other thing that bothers me about Xmas is that it’s so bloody expensive. Of course, credit cards come in handy, and run up real fast & easy. But then you spend the rest of the year trying to knock them back down. It’s an endless treadmill. In a typical year, I have to buy for Jaxx, Jonathan, Jaxx’s mom, 2 neices, 1 nephew, a coworker, a teacher, and either my parents, or my brother and sister in law depending who’s name I drew. Up until a few years ago, I also had my sister, her husband and her 4 kids on that list. Luckily, she has chosen to pursue a religion which doesn’t celebrate Xmas. Maybe she has the right idea.
I worry about our financial future. I hate that we are always broke, and survive paycheck to paycheck. I don’t like that feeling. If I had my way, we’d have NO credit cards. I hate them. But, these days, they are a neccesary evil. Every gift we buy, I hear the “Cha-Ching” of our debt going higher and higher. I guess that’s why I really don’t like Xmas.
Just let me sleep, and wake me when it’s all over.
Bah Humbug.
