I love this time of year, yet I loathe it at the same time. The pressure to get "just the right gift", and stay within a reasonable budget is difficult. I hate meandering through the stores without the slightest idea of what to purchase for my family. I am blessed with children who aren't materialistic and really don't have a Christmas wish list. Name brands have never been important to them (with the exception of anything Mac!) so I lie in bed at night trying to come up with ideas. Katya came up with a few things she wants, mainly a pink cell phone! Who she will call I have no idea, but unfortunately most of her classmates bring their telephones to school everyday. This is the result of 9/11, when the kids were forced to stay at school all day with no way to contact their family. Up to that point cell phones were banned at school, but no longer. Fred and I feel a cell phone would be a colossal waste of money, but she now thinks because she told Santa Claus she wants one, she'll get one. Ugh. I was watching a morning news show the other day and the hosts were giving suggestions on how to remain calm and stress free over the holidays. The segment was followed by a commercial of a store that was opening at 5 AM the next day for "your shopping convenience." I had to laugh! Getting to a store at 5 AM is sure to induce stress, but I suppose there would be no traffic at that time of morning! It occurred to me recently why I love Thanksgiving so much. It has so much of what Christmas has, such as family togetherness, time off from work, good food, and time to just rest and be together. Yet it doesn't have the whole commercial aspect of buy, buy, buy!! I applaud my neighbors who decided they would exchange no gifts this year, instead they are going downtown on Christmas morning to work in a soup kitchen. Good for them!! Maybe next year my family will do the same.
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