Shocking how the winter duldrums can really put a damper on sharing my menial life with all 1 of my followers. My apologies. In all fairness, nothing has happened to me worth sharing. However, I will share a new Christmas tradition my family started. We love it! It all started on Thanksgiving night, driving back from a relative's house in Wisconsin. My sister and I are well over the age of needing hundreds of dollars of presents for Christmas, mostly because I feel that, once you're out of college, you should be able to buy what you want and Christmas should be used to get people things from the heart. Apparently, my father totally disagrees and continues to spend entirely too much money on all of us. At almost 26 years old, and my sister at 29, we have tried to convince good old dad that his spending is a little excessive. So here was this year's solution:
My mom asked, "What was your best present last year for Christmas, quick in the next 10 seconds!"
None of us had an answer. We all sat in silence for awhile, and then my mom suggested a $50 limit. My sister said, no we tried that last year and dad doesn't seem to grasp the concept. I then suggested that we have a homemade Christmas, where each of us had to come up with something homemade to give all our family members. Thus, home-made Christmas emerged.
We only had a month to plan, but let me tell you, it was so much fun and we'll always remember what we got! I gave my dad and my sister's fiancee homemade snuggies (extra long because, let's face it, a snuggie is not long enough. I gave my sister a homemade jacket, and I gave my mom a necklace and earrings. I got an awesome leather belt and purse from my dad (thank goodness he was a hippie and into leatherwork), a refinished chair and pillows from my mom, a candle holder set (and teenage mutant ninja turtles t-shirt, not homemade but totally awesome), and a fantastic wine set (the "white trash white zin" and "shut the front door red" labels were homemade, the wine was not) from my sister's fiancee.
Tons of fun had all around, and I encourage all people who no longer have to supply children with the magic of Christmas to try it out! We're going to continue to do this year after year.
Also - I didn't step into a mall once this holiday. Sorry, economy. But let me tell you, as a former retail employee, I loved not having to wait in those lines!
