I love Christmas. I hold off on the carols and decorating until after Thanksgiving, but I'm usually ready to head out and get a tree that Saturday. This year was a bit different though. This year, Thanksgiving took a lot out of me. I spent the week after in a sort of zombie-like haze, trying to catch up on sleep and laundry and being thankful for the leftovers in my fridge. While people talked about Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, I could barely bring myself to care about presents. I started to worry, ever so slightly, that I would fall too far behind and be scrambling to get things done at the last minute.
On Friday, Kevin was talking about various gifts he was planning to get for friends and family. Something he said triggered an idea in me, and almost instantly I had figured out nearly all of my presents. The ones for family, anyway. With a firm idea the fog lifted from my brain, and I started planning out the stores I would need to visit.
We got up bright and early on Saturday to get the tree. It was raining, but that only helped us to be more decisive when we found a good one. Then I went out shopping in the afternoon and, miracle of miracles, I made a huge dent in my Christmas shopping list. And it's an impressively long list.
On Sunday I had one or two things more to buy. I actually found myself eager to go to Tyson's, the massive, nightmarish mall near our house. But I decided not to fight it and braved traffic. Parking was impressively easy. They implemented a new system to show empty parking spaces with red and green lights (and blue for handicapped spaces), and I was able to find a spot almost immediately. In the mall I quickly found what I wanted, rewarded myself with what is fast becoming a traditional cup of lobster bisque at Brio, and managed to not spend any money at Barnes and Noble.
I still have one or two more things to buy, and I need to wrap most of what I have bought and get it shipped to Colorado. But I'm feeling very on top of things. We have a fully decorated tree that I love looking at. The pile of presents beneath it is growing. Now all we need is some snow and everything will be perfect. I love this time of year.
No comments:
Post a Comment