Woohoo! I've finished
my Christmas shopping! It has been done in small increments starting before my
surgery in September and some was done online, but it's done. Of course I may think of one or two more
small items, then there's the grocery shopping for Christmas Eve and Christmas
Day, three birthdays, and our wedding anniversary. Even my Christmas cactus is
ahead of schedule.
I figured out much too late to change the facts, that
December is not the best time for a wedding or a birthday. We will have been married for forty-nine
years this Saturday. I married the right
person; no regrets there, but our anniversary gets lost each year in a flurry
of Christmas parties and preparations.
Our oldest daughter, a December baby, and two of our sons-in-law with
the same problem, always felt like their birthdays got a quick brush-by,
combined with Christmas, or generally ignored by their friends. So if it's not too late, try to plan a little
better than we did.
With our Christmas shopping done, we took a look at the
Kohl's cash and other accumulated coupons and bonuses we'd accumulated and
decided to spend them on an anniversary present for ourselves. We bought a carpet shampooer. I know. Terribly romantic, but we haven't
been satisfied with the carpet care companies we've used the past few years and
our old machine died many years ago.
Then there was that $90.00 in accumulated rewards from all that
Christmas shopping. I also managed to sneak in a little more personal gift for
my husband.
Sometimes the pre-Christmas decorating, shopping, baking,
parties, etc., leave us looking forward to having Christmas over. I'm enjoying most of the pre-Christmas
activity this year more than usual. Perhaps it's because I'm not doing any book
signings this year and have a little more time to spend doing other things. It's
not that I don't have a book out this year because actually I do. My publisher put out a small Christmas book this
year called With Wondering Awe that
includes a true Christmas story by me and stories by nine other authors. I also have a short story in The Art Of Motherhood and a full length
novel, Where the River Once Flowed which
was released in February. Yet I kind of miss the signings and the fun of
meeting people who are Christmas shopping.
It might be that I'm just enjoying seeing Christmas through
the eyes of my two-year-old granddaughter.
She's assigned each of the horses on the carousel to different family
members, the pink nutcracker is hers because everything pink is hers, and she
won't go near the big nutcracker because it bites. She loves candy canes and
music boxes. And a big tree covered with
interesting toys and a choo choo that races around a track are all exciting,
new wonders. And for the quiet moments
she's enthralled with books that tell the story of a Baby, sleeping on the hay.
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