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Greg44
12-17-11, 12:19pm
The Christmas season is always a reality check for me. I always think I am a very organized person...but then the Holidays come.

I am the guy standing in line on Christmas eve. Our lights are not up yet -- despite my wife reminding me (several times a day). Our tree isn't up. Lots of shopping yet to do. Family is coming to our "little house" Thursday p.m.

It just seems like my plate is already full and then comes the season of have to's.
My dw just doesn't understand why I don't "want to".

The rest of my family is "really" into Christmas and so simplifying it just isn't an option.

So how is everyone doing? Packages all wrapped and under the tree? All the cards have me sent? Baking is done? So now you are just sitting sipping your hot chocolate watching the Christmas specials? :~) (doing a "raspberrry")!!

catherine
12-17-11, 12:27pm
Haha, Greg, you sound like me and my family. It's always a race to the finish line to get things done. You'd think that I'd be more organized after 34 years of doing this, but, no.

In fact, I was just talking to DS33, whose girlfriend recently asked him, so what kind of dinner does your family eat on Christmas Eve? She's Italian and does the whole 7 course Italian feast on Christmas Eve. So DS said, "Well, it's usually buffalo wings at the bar at the mall while running around trying to get the shopping finished before the stores close at 6. Her answer, "Well, if our relationship continues, THAT is doing to change."

I sure hope she can knock some sense into us.

Well, out to do some shopping! Decorated the house yesterday, but I'm getting off easy this year because we're traveling up to Vermont where my three kids will be hosting this time. We'll see if I can get shopped up and presents wrapped before we leave on Friday, but I'm not too optimistic!

iris lily
12-17-11, 12:28pm
Probably I should buy DH something. I am thinking: a new pair of jeans. That is pricey, and he seldom gets new clothes.

We are incredibly laid back here, no "have tos, should dos, must dos." Two holidays parties this weekend, I opted out of one.

citrine
12-17-11, 12:47pm
The lights and tree is up. I went for the first round of shopping for BF, Dad, and Brother. I just have my Mom, SIL, and BF's two sons who want gift cards :)
Oh and the two kitty cats!

cdttmm
12-17-11, 8:07pm
I am mostly ready. We don't decorate at our house -- with three dogs and two cats a tree wouldn't last long! But I have my plane ticket bought and will be heading to MN on Friday to visit my family for a few days. Gifts are purchased for the most part -- still need to buy something for my younger brother, but he gave me a list of things he wants, so it will be easy. Wrapping of the gifts always happens when I get to my mom's house as wrapped gifts make the security line that much more challenging at the airport. Still have to buy something for my partner...that is always a challenge. I'm sure I will think of something in the next few days!!!

fidgiegirl
12-17-11, 8:29pm
This year has been easy peasy for us as far as the holidays. DH and I agreed to a $30 limit, and my family draws names with a $30 limit. That is basically one or two things for each of those two people. We will put together some kind of experience for DMIL and DFIL, and we'll be all set. With the remodeling it was pretty easy to let go of decorating and cards - we'll maybe do Valentine's cards as we do like sending out news but just don't have time right now. And if not, meh.

Simplemind
12-17-11, 8:42pm
First let me say that I come from a do or die family of Christmas traditions. This year I decided to step out. Once again we said that we would not do gifts beyond the Christmas socks. I am so discusted by anything retail starting Nov 1st that I refuse to shop. Then DH and I took a big leap and decided to get out of Dodge. There are five family birthdays this month along with our anniversary and Christmas. Christmas drew the short straw.
Our house has no lights (I'm sure my neighbors are having a stroke) because we were not going to be there. We put up a tree the day after Thanksgiving with about half the ornaments we usually pile on. I didn't put greenery up because we wouldn't be there to smell it. I did do cards before I left. We get back on the 22nd and I didn't discuss hosting any dinner parties before we left and I hope to come back and find out that somebody else picked up the slack if it was important to them.
Maybe after all is said and done I might feel that I missed out on something. If so I can always jump back into the fray next year. Right now I'm chillin.......

Mrs-M
12-17-11, 9:00pm
For the most part, yes. It's easy to go overboard and scramble and fret right up to and including Christmas Day, however knowing ones limits and recognizing a comfortable happy-medium, makes all the difference in the world in being able to actually enjoy the holiday season for all it's worth.

Zoebird
12-18-11, 3:31am
both packages wrapped. shopping list (food for the first 3-4 days of our trip) organized. driving directions printed out. reservations sorted (weeks ago). trunk measured for suitcases and food and such.

party for "4th of July" organized. So far, a few people attending. :) I think 8? 10? something like that. Keeping it simple -- chips, salsa, guacamole, cut veggies and dips, sausages. BYOB.

decorations? nada. will cut some pohutukawa when we get back from vacation (jan 2 ish).

garden done. house cleaned. closet still being reorganized (finish tomorrow). everything going along smoothly, really.

i don't feel overwhelmed. i'm psyched. but i don't do more than i want. and as far as i can tell, most people don't do as much decorating over the holidays as is common in the US. because most people are going out of town anyway. :)

goldensmom
12-18-11, 7:43am
Yup. Decorations done, shopping done, baking done, husband's extended family Christmas (a really big) DONE. Christmas program at church today then my intent is to relax and enjoy but then I've been relaxing and enjoying the whole time. I'm at the place in life where I do not allow myself be stressed by much.

leslieann
12-18-11, 7:43am
Well, we did quite a lot yesterday; finished decorating the tree, did some major cleaning (not too hard, as we are fairly well decluttered in the living space, at least). DH and I went out and got his BIG present (and it is a big present) but he is tickled with it and the experience of shopping for it, and I have "hidden" it here at the house. So we have a couple of stocking gifts to get for DSD but that's it. And MY wrapping is finished but not his. He always says what you said, Greg44, how can I add this stuff on to my schedule, especially when I just don't WANT to? This year his sisters are coming for Christmas, and two of my adult kids are coming right after, so we are pretty excited to be having welcomed guests, and that helps. He did his shopping for his sisters on Labour Day weekend at a local crafts show, so that's been in the bag for awhile.

I do kind of get worked up around the cooking but I decided this year that I do it because I LIKE it so quit complaining! And next year, we are going to try no tree (the tree seems to be a point of some stress around here, and I don't actually have any "musts" around the tree) AND if we want those darn cut-out sugar cookies to decorate, I'll buy them already made.

Some part of me feels like there HAS to be something I am missing, though. I guess maybe that's just anxiety, and it will go away. The post above that got my attention was Iris Lily's. I would like to be in THAT spot about Christmas. Simplifying is a process, though. Ten years ago I was doing cards, letters, giving food to all of my neighbors and co-workers, performing in multiple concerts and church services, and I am doing none of those, so I am making progress toward the holiday I want to have.

Blackdog Lin
12-18-11, 12:47pm
I am amazed that in spite of how very much simplified we've made our holiday season, there still seems so much to do.

- don't do Christmas cards anymore, but the "adorable one of the household" (the dog) still sends out 5 edible cards to her "friends", so have that still to do.
- don't do any holiday baking, but I do enjoy cooking special things for the holidays for DH, and I also enjoy doing a party platter for the office, which requires a plan, a grocery list, and a shopping trip (to the larger town/better store 10 miles away). Plan done; grocery list, shopping trip, and actual preparing still to come.
- simplified tree to little 3-ft. one years ago, but I was sick last weekend so it still isn't up. Can't put tree up till vacuuming is done. If vacuuming should dust too. Must get done today. Have made decision that even the very minimal other decorating we usually do, not this year. Tree only and done.
- All gift shopping is done (simplified that too, we do very little), but need to deliver gifties and do "Holiday visit" with siblings in town. Have to plan to get done this week.
- cards/tips to tradespeople - only have two, but still have to get done and in the mail.
- want to do annual Christmas donation to local food bank, but prefer to do anonymously, which requires going to grocery store and getting gift certificates, rather than just sending a check. Still to do.
- and so on.

Even with all our simplifying, every year I swear I'm just going to do NOTHING for the holidays, except maybe cook. But then I seem to myself too hum-buggish, or too lazy, or too thoughtless.....I know I won't like myself if I don't at least do a little something for celebrating the holidays.

And that said, I am outtahere! This post has at least inspired me to get offline and get my butt in gear on getting some of these things done! :D

iris lily
12-18-11, 2:41pm
gregg44, I remember your posts from last year. I'm sorry that you are unable to enjoy these holidays due to too much frenzy. If there is no way that you can scale down you own participation, than there is no way. But I wouldn't put up with someone telling me how I had to enjoy the holidays. OTOH I have a very flexible spouse. For many years he made himself a whirling dervish of baking: dozens and dozens of cookies, fudge, sometimes candy. Like we need that stuff. For a while I begged him not to bake so much because it stayed around until April. He did finally cut back and back. And now, this year--there's been no baking. But in the end, if he wants to bake, that's up to him. He certainly doesn't expect ME to do it. He likes buying pointettias at Home Depot and each year will buy 3. Lately, that's been our only decorations.

madgeylou
12-18-11, 4:44pm
i'm almost ready. we got the last of the decorations up today and it makes me smile to see them all turned on! all i have to do now is unpack all the gifts that have arrived via amazon (did most of my shopping there this year) and wrap them. that'll be a fun evening with a couple glasses of red one night this week. :)

friday night, we are hosting eddie vedder's birthday party, which i have done for like 15 out of the last 20 years. it's always a lot of fun to hook up with friends around the holidays for a reason that is not gifts / christmas / etc, just fun and laughing with a bit of food and booze.

dec 24 is my sis-in-law's family's traditional big celebration, which will be smaller this year since her father died in february, and it'll be their first holiday without him.

christmas day is dinner at home with my man, who is menu planning as we speak. then that night we'll go out and see my grandma at manor care.

we are celebrating boxing day by eating leftovers, playing with our presents, and not getting dressed or leaving the house all day! yeah!!

a few days after that is my birthday, which will be something simple, maybe a nice dinner out or maybe i'll finally see the muppet movie. and then i have no idea what we're doing for new years. i typically like to stay home. last year we drank champagne and watched all 3 godfathers, which i had never seen, and that was a pretty fun NYE in my book.

redfox
12-18-11, 5:11pm
We keep it so pared down that it's easy, and celebrate the Winter Solstice return of the Light. Hang a few cute ornaments on the ficus in the living room. Today we'll swag the banister with evergreen boughs that landed in our backyard after a big storm, from the tree behind us. I found a string of LED lights at Goodwill for $1.00-perfect for the swag.

We give simple gifts, mostly food we make, and that is it. I am very happy to keep it super simple.

Zoebird
12-19-11, 12:01am
got a first gift today from a friend of ours to hawk. a huge plastic r2d2 robot that talks and moves. Ds is in love. LOL

when i saw it, i admittedly thought "oh ****." I'm grateful for the thought, but where the heck are we going to keep this thing? such that DS doesn't destroy it in 20 seconds? He's come pretty close several times. We opened the package about 1.5 hrs ago.

happystuff
12-19-11, 6:55am
I had a really decent jump-start on the gift-getting. Turns out that was a good thing as we just buried my dad this passed weekend. Having to switch gears quickly as the kids are now very focused and excited about the holidays.

Wishing everyone wonderful and happy holidays filled with loving family and friends.

Greg44
12-19-11, 5:18pm
Lights up.
Tree purchased, delivered and going up this evening while dw & dd are at highschool basketball game.
I now know what I am going to buy -- half of the battle of present shopping.


....and it isn't even the 24th yet -- ah life is good + my mid week day off is Tuesday so I will have a 3 day Christmas weekend. woo hoo! Merry Christmas to me!

treehugger
12-19-11, 5:43pm
Greg, you have made amazing progress in 2 days. Good for you!

I'm ready, becasue I don't really do much, by choice. I had my baking day on the 4th. I don't do presents. Some years I decorate, but not this year. We just need to nail down our Eve and Day plans with DH's family groups.

Kara

artist
12-21-11, 8:48am
We are on our way to being ready. My family celebrates a very faith based Christmas. Oure tree is small and simple. a two foot tall table top pre-lit tree that is decorated with bells and wooden signs my husband made. We have a basket that hold Christmas cards in December and pine cones the rest of the year. Under our tree is a simple "Santa" mug filled with candy canes. The canes are exact to the story of the religious origin of the candy cane and are in the santa mug to remind us of the one true gift that is Jesus. We also have a willow tree nativity set out. Setting all this up takes us a half hour from start to finish.

We do not exchange gifts so no shopping to do there. Instead we focus on our faith, friends and family. Lots of invites over to our house for dinner, Christmas eve spent with my extended family and then Christmas day we have an open house at our home. Lots of baking to do in preparation for both Christmas eve and Christmas day and that's what I'm starting to work on now. I'm baking 5 dozen traditional holiday cookies today (I will split them between Christmas eve at my sisters with my family and Christmas day at our house with our friends).

I also have to bake a pie and a birthday cake for Jesus. Our Christmas dinner is a chuck roast, baby carrots and potatos which will be cooking in my crockpot all day during the open house. This will allow me to have the time to relax and enjoy my guest and not have to worry about preparing dinner.

lmerullo
12-21-11, 10:23am
As of last night, I am officially done. I thought I was done on Saturday, but then Sunday got a coupon for "buy one, get one"' to a jewelry store. I just got granddaughter's ears pierced and she can take out the starter earrings on Christmas, so I HAD to use the coupon. Of course, that meant I had to spend $X for grandson to even things up... It took longer to buy the "even up" gift than the real ones.

Tree up and decorated, groceries bought, gifts bought and wrapped. Me - relaxed! Christmas - done!

Float On
12-21-11, 10:33am
Mailed a couple of gifts yesterday afternoon, addressed a few christmas cards last night after we drove thru the christmas light trail, and I'm all done.

iris lily
12-21-11, 10:36am
I"m out $72 so far for the holidays. Yesterday I completed gift shopping (bought token presents at Walgreens and the local pet store) and had a lot of fun wrapping pressies. So, I think I'll get 2 more to wrap.

sweetana3
12-21-11, 11:12am
I am liking our holiday after reading all these exhausting stories. No decorations other than a 3 foot long Santa on the front door and a tablerunner. No tree, no nothing. No Xmas dinner. We are thinking about having our New Years special meal on Xmas. Clam dip, Long Island Ice Tea, cheesecake and a story goes with it.

No presents. Well, I did get a French press to give to hubby from the cats. We got way more Xmas cards from businesses than people.

Nothing to unpack or put away. Lovely. If it wasnt so crowded over the holidays, we would take a cruise and get out of Dodge.

Greg44
12-21-11, 12:53pm
Tree is up - all decorated; and I did not complain once. Put on my happy face!
90% of gifts purchased - 50% wrapped.
Looking forward to my family coming on Friday. While it will be hectic due to the lack of space in our home - it will be fun.
Our 3 dd's are each about 7 years apart, so our youngest gets lots of sisterly advice from her older siblings! They love going to the mall, out to movies, and staying up very late. Oh to be young!

Bastelmutti
12-21-11, 1:43pm
Presents - Bought, but one won't make it here on time :-( Need to mail one more.
Wrapping - To do today/tomorrow!
Tree - We have a fake because we're out of town some Xmases & it's fairly small, easy to decorate & looks nice.
Other decorations - Some Xmas tschotschkes we like on the side board plus Xmas cards we receive.
Cards - Have skipped cards most years to focus on other things, but decided it would be fun to do them again this year. Unfortunately, I can only write a handful each day due to repetitive strain issues.

The good news is that we draw names on DH's side, and now we're talking about skipping adult presents on my side and do a nice dinner out or something like that & just focus on the kids. With my cousins we do a wine bottle decorating contest. That will cut out a lot of stress next year!

iris lily
12-22-11, 12:05am
Advice columnist Caroly Hax had a good holiday piece today. Someone was complaining because her sister has opted out of hosting 28 people in her home, Last year the sister said that she was done hosting family events, and when the writer contacted the sister about her involvement, the message was repeated: I am done.

The writer complained about her sister's behavior. Ms. Hax wasted no words in telling her she was out of line. ha ha. Really, I am astonished at these women (and it's always women) who have long lists of expectations that everyone must meet. Exhausting to be around these people. A cartoon in the Hax column said: Today's traditions are the tyranny of fixed expectations tomorrow. I thought that said it perfectly.

That's why my only tradition is: no tradition. I get bored doing the same thing year after year and won't be roped into that.

Bastelmutti
12-22-11, 9:12am
Really, I am astonished at these women (and it's always women) who have long lists of expectations that everyone must meet.

Yes 100%!

Merski
12-24-11, 11:00am
House is clean enough, food is good enough we are relaxed enough...I'd say we're ready...BRING IT ONNNNNNN!!!!

KayLR
12-24-11, 11:46am
Today's traditions are the tyranny of fixed expectations tomorrow.

I'm going to try and make this a mantra.

One other thing, tho---it must have been a Christmas miracle that Carolyn Hax "wasted no words." My God, that woman makes me nuts with her diatribes. Wise, but verbose.

Float On
12-24-11, 12:03pm
I just made a beautiful chocolate raspberry cake....now I just have to guard it until Christmas Day dinner with friends.

iris lily
12-24-11, 12:28pm
I just made a beautiful chocolate raspberry cake....now I just have to guard it until Christmas Day dinner with friends.

omg, that sounds heavenly!

redfox
12-24-11, 3:17pm
DH & I are sitting together, reading on our various devices, enjoying coffee. Quiet time & a simple meal later on will be our celebration... And maybe a walk this afternoon.