Let the stress begin...21 days and counting

I can understand people simply fleeing the mountainous effort Christmas has become….but there are always a few saving graces and finally they make up for all the bother and distress. ~ May Sarton

I use to be such a Christmas nut…now sometimes sadly it is an effort. I love going to church on Christmas Eve. I love driving around and looking at the outside Christmas lights. I love walking, preferably in snow, to find the perfect tree. I love the wrapping of the presents. My mother was a master at disguising gifts so it has become somewhat of a game. The guys are downstairs now working on something…I love to make believe I am coming down and listen to them holler! I love the music…Bing, Frank, Dean, Nat. I love watching all the shows on TV. I love reading all the Christmas stories. I love turning off all the house lights and just watching the blinking tree lights dance on the ornaments and create shadows within the branches of the tree. I love going to bed on Christmas Eve with butterflies of anticipation. I love watching people open their presents. I love when the presents are all open and everyone is so absorbed in what they got. And even though I don’t particularly like to bake I don’t mind it at Christmas. I made two batches of cookies today. It is a start.

I don’t however, like to shop on a normal day. Add to that snarky people vying for the biggest, best or last gift to be had and I hate it even more. When forced to enter a store during the holidays I get nauseous and before I exit I have a headache. If I have someone with me and I have psyched myself into it I can laugh off their rude obnoxious behavior and after they have rammed their cart into me…again, I can smile at them and say “And a Merry Christmas to you too”. Only once was that followed by calling her a female dog. That being said you know that I was NOT shopping on Black Friday!

I got most of what I wanted before Thanksgiving. However,some people don’t give you ideas early enough to make this happen….and those I try to cover by shopping on line or I’ll grab the man and psych myself up.

Thankfully it is early enough that when I had to go into town on Thursday it wasn't all that bad. There were more people but they were still pleasant. Now the best part of shopping is when I come home, stoke up the wood stove, make a cup of tea and sit down to work on my grandson’s stocking…and all the tension of shopping just slips away with the stitches off the needles. I have finished three presents ...these are another pair of fingerless mitts for #2 daughter as she looses them all the time and the dead fish hat for Baby O.....

Besides the stocking I have two more projects in various stages of completion. If time allows there are some other gifts I could work on but if it doesn't happen it is not a big deal.

I only have a couple of things left to pick up including the duck for dinner. Oh yeah and the tree. But that can all wait a while because tonight is another one of my favorites of the season….VFW yearly prize bingo. My mom and I went every year and now my kids are all going. The proceeds go to the children’s Christmas party. My kids use to love going to the party but now they are all way over the cut off age. It is by no means a serious bingo game. The men buy or get donations of prizes so a lot of them include booze in some form. If you are not lucky enough to win something you want, most people are willing to swap for something you won! I have won dinner at a local restaurant, money off my phone bill, free hair cut, free oil change, $25 gift certificate at grocery store, bird feeders and a whole lot more over the years. Cheap fun for a good cause and one of those saving graces that makes up for the downside of the holidays. Now when I was outside earlier a bird flew over and pooped on my shoulder....that's good luck right?! Oh well if it isn't please send me some!