Christmas Shopping Through The Years!

"As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December's bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same."

~Donald E. Westlake

 

Christmas shopping... BLECH! For some strange reason, I don't enjoy Christmas/Holiday shopping as much as I used to! In my twenties, I could work a full 8 hour shift at work, and still close the malls shopping! In my thirties, I learned to be a bit more reasonable with my time. Just because I could close a mall, didn't mean I had to! That was an unanticipated side effect of marriage! LOL. Suddenly, budgets were a good thing, but what goes with a sound budget? Strictly planned shopping! Gone are the days of impulse buying, nope in my thirties I learned to be a coupon clipper, sales advertisement peeper, and a bargain shopper planner! Not very spontaneous, but definitely less nerve racking come January! Now, my forties came with the idea of purchasing gifts throughout the year, and putting them away in a special gift box for the holidays! That way everything got paid off a little at a time! Can you tell what I am leading up to? 

My fifties! My shopping energy is now almost nonexistent, and so is my patience! Nothing makes me more irritable than rudeness! But it's especially bad when it's coming from someone 30 years younger than me! The other day, while standing in line at Walmart, a young woman of about 20 or so, who was standing in front of me, backed into my cart at least four times within a span of about 2 minutes! Each time she bumped into me, she would stop yelling at her boyfriend, who apparently lives in her cell phone, to turn around and apologize profusely! The first couple times I accepted her apology, but by the third time I was just pissed off! On the fourth, "I'm Sorry" I said, "No you're not!" You should have seen the look on her face! "No really ma'am, I am sorry."

I didn't have the energy to shop that day, but shop I had to! I didn't have the energy to stand in line at Walmart that day, but stand in line I had to. Walmart frowns on customers who take items from the store without doing the heavy lifting of actually standing in line! So I was pretty much at the mercy of whoever was standing along with me. When the young woman was so deep in her own life, that she couldn't just put a little thought into her actions, it just rubbed me the wrong way! Sigh. I let it go at that, because thankfully, the line began to move again, and she was going to be out of my life soon enough!

Whatever!

As of today, I am 90% finished with my Christmas shopping! I have one more trip to Walmart, to pick up a gift for the cats, and a small gift for Alan. Tonight he and I are going to pick out our annual Tilden Park Carousel ornaments. The Winter Wonderland at the Tilden Park Carousel is nothing short of magical, and when we are there it puts me in the holiday spirit like nothing else! We have bought each other an ornament every year for the last 7 years or so! They have about 14 Christmas trees, that have every kind of Christmas ornament theme you could come up with! Including a Hunter's Tree, Fairy Tales, Sea Creatures, and of course, some that are more traditional! It is gorgeous! One of my very favorite is the all Christmas candy tree! It consists of lovely plastic candies, and cupcakes. It's hard not to feel like a kid when looking at all the candy, and that makes this old lady feel really good!

Shopping isn't actually a sport, but it does take skills and patience!

ESPECIALLY PATIENCE!

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

It's Christmas Time In The City

"I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas, with a note on it saying, toys not included."

~Bernard Manning

 

If the world ends on Friday, I hope the last thing I see is San Francisco as I rise up into the clouds. I love it here. It's beautiful. And fun. And inspiring. And a little odd. And friendly. And anytime I am down in the dumps, a simple trip across any of the bridges that lead to the city, usually awakens the happiness in me. It heals me. It dries my tears. Unless it is making me laugh till I cry. God I love that feeling. Laughing till I cry, with my sides in spasms... oh how I love that feeling.

 

Tuesday, Alan and I decided to fill up our life with fun. It doesn't take a lot to improve our moods, for us it mostly consists of going out and letting life show us the big picture. Our first destination was a visit to the Tilden Park Christmas Carousel. There is a lot of joy to be had there. The whole place is decorated with different themed Christmas trees, with beautiful ornaments which can be purchased off any of the trees. It's a long standing tradition to purchase each other a new ornament each year, and we always grab ones for the cats as well. I love hanging those ornaments on the trees year after year, and remembering all the joy we got from finding just the right one.

After the park, we left for Union Square, in San Francisco. Where it was COLD! :) I smile because I bought myself an early Christmas present a couple weeks ago. I new, incredibly warm, gorgeous leopard print coat from Old Navy. GOD I LOVE OLD NAVY! :) I call my new coat my "Jersey Housewife" coat in honor of the Real Housewives of New Jersey, and their love of... ahem... all things leopard. LOL. It's a fun coat, and it makes me happy. And warm. Although for some odd reason whenever I wear it I seem to pronounce stuff weird. Like if I want Alan to buy me a hot dog from the hot dog vendor on the corner, rather than say... Alan, please get me a hot dog... I tend to say something like... Hey Guido, I could really use a Dwag. LOL. Just kidding, but you knew that... right?

Anyway, we had an amazing time, sitting in Starbucks, upstairs at Macy's in Union Square. It's a lot of fun watching the shoppers, and the ice skaters, and the happiness everyone gets from a little shopping therapy, and holiday fun. Sometimes I wish I could go ice skating, but alas I never learned how. Sigh. That's one of my minor regrets, because it looks like amazing fun. About the only way I could even consider it at this point in life is if there is such a thing as training blades, which I am pretty sure doesn't exist. Nope, I might just have to face the fact that I am now too old to learn to ice skate. Woe is me. Although my knees applaud my maturity. LOL. It's not easy to know that I was able to conquer my fear of flying, but learning to ice skate is simply off the table.

Weird That.

Except for our holiday ornaments, we haven't bought a single thing for each other yet. Yikes! I think I will be doing some shopping later today, and he is planning on shopping this weekend. So, we will be back in the city over the weekend for some fun, so I will have plenty of time to enjoy the holiday sights, sounds, and shopping. Ahhh... bliss. :) Sometimes, when the world really gets to me I think the world can't end soon enough, but then I see a cute little snowman ice skating, or the most adorable elderly couple ice skating, holding hands, and looking at each other like they fell in love just a few moments ago, or I catch a glimpse of San Francisco at holiday time, and I want to grab onto life, even with it's sorrows, and embrace every bit of it.

It's Christmas Time In The City...







"It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags! Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a lot more."

~Dr. Suess, How The Grinch Stole Christmas

~Happiness

~Me :)

Last Night's Christmas Joke...

Q. Why is Christmas just like a day at the office?

A. You do all the work, and the fat guy with the suit gets all the credit.

Tonight's Joke...

Q. How does Al Gore's household keep Christmas politically correct?

*Comeback tomorrow for the punchline. But feel free to take a guess, or leave a FAMILY FRIENDLY holiday joke in the comment thread.

Will The Curse Of Christmas Eve Live On?

"The quickest way to know a woman is to go shopping with her."

-Marcelene Cox

I started and finished all my holiday shopping yesterday! I was well prepared this year, and for the most part I stuck to the list and to the budget! Well, ok, maybe I went over our discussed limit a little bit, but not outrageously. It's just that I saw one or two things that I thought Alan would enjoy finding under the Christmas tree this year. He made me a list, and I got everything on it, but it seems like there should be one or two surprises as well. :) What fun would it be to open your presents, and find all the stuff you asked for, and no surprises?

So, I should be able to just sit at home on Christmas Eve, and not tempt fate, but again I ask, "what fun would that be?" In the way of curses, this year is shaping up to be right on target. December 10th did indeed provide the universal practical joke that it is so famous in our house, so you know that my personal tradition of being called a B*I*T*C*H by a total stranger on Christmas Eve will more then likely live on. At least I hope so. If it does, it will make 24 years in a row! That's right... we are on year 24! Oh how I look forward to it... LOL... and I swear, I do nothing to provoke it, it just happens! LOL. You know how it all began, right? The tradition was started by a nun with Turret's Syndrome, way back in the mid 1980's.

Keep your fingers crossed! It just wouldn't be Christmas without it. You will have to tune in, the week after Christmas to find out if the curse lives on. Anyway, back to the shopping...

This year's holiday shopping has been so odd. I did all my shopping in the real world, as opposed to the Internet. It was cheaper to get all bundled up, and go to the mall, rather then sit back and shop online. I bet it is the first Christmas in maybe 7 years, or so, that I didn't purchase the majority of my gifts online. With the unsteady economy, prices have been hugely competitive. There were some bargains which simply couldn't be passed up! And while I was hunting for bargains early on, Alan actually bought the first present of the year way back in October, when he found something for me at a cute little Farmer's Market we visited while on vacation. :)

I just had the best day shopping, and picking out things yesterday. I took the long way around the Bay Area, driving the back roads, so I could enjoy the last of the autumn color. No freeways, just the leaf filled streets, and the view of the snow on the Bay Area hills! The sun was moving in and out of the clouds, so I had a lot of different lighting opportunities to work with. Stunning. The sight of the Autumn leaves, always puts me in the best mood. I just love this time of year! Christmas is, of course, a winter holiday, but I always thought it should really be a gift of autumn! After all, winter can only claim it because it is only a few days into it's season. Somehow, that just doesn't seem fair! And since I only have a couple more days of autumn, I am doing a lot of photography around the area to make the most of it! I will have an "Autumn Photography Round-up" this Sunday, so be sure and stop by!

After all the shopping yesterday, I had a wonderful lunch, then climbed into my favorite chair and relaxed with my two cats. Dylan loves to sit on my lap and sleep, sometimes for hours, and since I can't disturb him, I have to nap along with him. LOL. Well, it would be just rude to move him, you know? I'm a good mommy, because after the nap, he and Hendrix helped my wrap presents, we played fetch with a BellBall. Dylan LOVES playing fetch. Some folks think only dogs play fetch, silly persons, cats love it too! And so do I! :) Hendrix isn't much for fetch, but he does make a nifty tower of tissue paper! LOL. I have little green and red towers all around the living room~ It's quite festive here!

I am now off to make some Pecan/Cinnamon strusel bread. We are making Hanukkah cookies on Sunday night, and I will probably make a small fruitcake on Christmas. Yes, I am one of those strange people who actually enjoys fruitcake. LOL. Oh my, I do step to a different drummer don't I? LOL. Oh well. As bad as this year has been, I will not give up! I have given up before, I won't do that again. No matter how bad things are, there is always something to believe in. Friends. Health. Kittens. Puppies. People you will always love, even if you are apart. Hot Chocolate w/Raspberry Syrup. Starbuck's. Holiday Fantasy In The Woods. Music. SNOW GLORIOUS SNOW. Photography. Naughty underthings ;) LOL. Opossums. Sappy holiday movies. Hanukkah, Christmas, New Presidents. And my personal favorite, a total stranger calling you a B*I*T*C*H on Christmas Eve. :) Let the tradition live on...

-Carly
"She Shopped Till She Dropped"
Berkeley, California
December 18th, 2008
Afternoon