I no longer qualify as the person who has Christmas under control. I don’t shop in August/September so that all I have to do Thanksgiving weekend is package everything for mailing the following week. I don’t make my own cards anymore (in September!). I don’t even really send any. I send ecards for Thanksgiving because that is beginning of the season and I still like to get some things out-of-the-way early. (load address book on to card site, hit send) Plus it has the advantage of being better for the environment and more sensitive toward those who don’t celebrate Christmas. I don’t spend the month of October making fruitcake and tending it carefully with frequent applications of bourbon anymore either. Nor do I make handmade ornaments, stuffed teddy bears, pajamas for my my entire family and cute hand painted boxes.
I still make a few homemade gifts, truffles for the people I work with, and some knitted items that I can actually get done before Christmas usually for people I am actually spending the holiday with.
I don’t cut my own 10ft tree, whittle it down to ceiling height, and then use the leftovers to festoon the house. I don’t have room. It takes me maybe an hour to put up my 24″ artificial tree with (ok, so they are handmade) felt ornaments.
What this means is that I have failed for yet another year to do my shopping early. I will be joining the ranks of all the other organizationally challenged who find themselves out this weekend trying to score some bargains. Just, ok, not on Friday, please don’t make me go on Friday and please let me find everything in my little downtown stores so I don’t have to go to the mall.
Tangletale 