Wednesday, November 15, 2006

I'm not ready for Christmas yet......

Well, as Thanksgiving is only a little more than a week away, that mean that Christmas is well on it's way...like it or not. I really love Christmas. The decorations, the songs, and all the other crazy things that go with it. One thing that I am not so enthusiastic about....the cost of Christmas!

I enjoy the idea of buying gifts for my friends and family, if I know what to buy them that is. I have been known to spend too much money, and buy people gifts that maybe I wouldn't have had to buy gifts for, but I'm OK with that. This year however, money is tight, so I am feeling stressed because I don't have the money that I wish I did for gifts.

My side of the family isn't too bad. We buy for my parents, my sister, my brother in law, my grandfather,a mens gift, and a ladies gift. The mens/ladies gifts are for a game we play. Instead of pulling names, we play a game called now you have it, now you don't. Everyone get a gift, so it is just a little more fun than a standard exchange of gifts. Tony's family on the other hand are out of their minds...in a good way. His family is large and close knit, so they all get gifts for everyone. Look, as I said I love buying presents for other people, but we are talking a lot of people...I won't even attempt to list everyone. Buying even somthing small for everyone is expensive...I think there is around 15 people. Why in the hell can't they just pull names or play a game, it would be so much eaiser.

Each year, Tony and I have tried to think of something fun for his nieces and nephews to do for their gifts. Last year, we got four refrigerator boxes, and bought each (4) a bunch of little things from the dollar store and one big gift and crumpled up enough newspaper to fill our living room and hid all of their goodies in these boxes, so they would have to dump them out and dig for their gifts.....that was great. This year we are trying to plan a scavenger hunt of some sort, so wish me luck with that.

I just can't believe the holidays are here already....didn't we just do this, oh well. Does anyone have any nifty Christmas/holiday traditions or games, or anything like that, that they do with family or friends?

1 comment:

Adamity73 said...

Lil Miss--

Buy the "scavangers" a box of noodles.

Then tell the small wonders, "There ain't no Santy Claus, morons! It's all...Kommercialized!"

When they cry and bat aimlessly 'bout the living room, that's your cue!

Lil Miss, say, "Psyche! There *is* a Saint Nick! And He brought you goodly kids...this!"

And then--this is great; I haven't tried it, yet--shower the front room with pencils and erasers and 6-month-stale Peeps.

The kids'll say, "Uh? Uh? Uh, where's the Gameboy/robot-of-the-year/PS3?"

And, then, in all of your worldly 29 (27) years, you can say to the spouters, "I had to walk to school, through the snow, every gosh-darned day of the year, June included. Electricity is a passing fad, kids, germenated from some fool in Michigan named Edison. Edison! Does *that* sound like a legimate name, kiddos?! I thought not. Be happy with your pencils and your erasers; there is a Dark Day a-coming."

But--and this is the most *important* part, Lil Miss--you have to *sell* it; you have to keep the kids in the dark.

Nevermore will "ee-lek-tron-ik" gifts be issued. The Dark Day is a-coming. You have *got* to make that slop *perfectly* clear to their somewhat-unwrinkled brains.

You have to tell them, Lil Miss, that the "bestest gift evah" is a simple act of kindness, like mowing a woman's lawn or pinning the wood to her shed.

Things like that.

Good.Luck-----------;-).