Christmas is coming

And with it, I have both excitement and questions.

Excitement: Giving all the gifts I've found for people. Spending
time with family. Eating. Watching Dale's eyes light up as we turn
on the tree for the first time this year. Taking pictures. Watching
the cats play with the cloth-covered balls.

Not so exciting: TRYING to find gifts for people (some are hard to
buy for!). Going out in the cold to get the tree. Keeping the cats
away from the cloth-covered balls. LOL. Driving so far to SEE the
family.

Downright questionable: Wrapping gifts in paper that will then be
ripped to shreds and thrown in a landfill. The bags of trash on the
side of the street. Potentially getting gifts that I will treasure
due to whom they're from yet will never get used or will keep taking
up space and/or cluttering up the house. Killing a tree so we can
enjoy it inside for a few weeks, then toss it. The commercialism
that's so prevalent around the holidays.

The funny thing is that these days I'd rather have a nice visit with
family than receive gifts from them. Not to say I don't LIKE gifts,
but why must we concentrate gift-giving into one or two special days
each year? (Birthdays are the other, but those are far less obvious
to everyone so sometimes you can slip past folks and they'll never
know they "should" get you something.) Dale's mom has the right idea
- she sees something she thinks we'd like and she gets it then and
there. The only problem with that is that then she STILL feels the
need to shower us at Christmastime, too. She's just a really giving
person. Me, I can find things for her really easily because she likes
just about everything. Dale's reasonably easy, too. But for everyone
else I wander around going, "Is that them? Is that them? Would they
like that? Dammit, why can't they just spell out what they want?!"

I have a wishlist to make it easier for people who are caught in the
same sort of situation. Surprises are nice, but I know how it feels
to not be sure if someone likes your taste or just their taste. Such
a guessing game...

Anywho, the paper thing, though, that's really bothering me. I
presume it's intended to not just make things pretty, but to separate
gifts so there's a nice surprise when you finally get to what's
beneath. After all, duct-taping around the gift is intended to be
fun. I know. I've done it. But wrapping should either be banned or
downright merciless. It's such a waste of our earth's resources. And
so is gift-giving for the sheer sake of giving because it's Christmas
time.

Hm. I just thought of something I can get my mother, though. I can't
mention what in case she reads this... LOL

~nv