I have mostly completed my Christmas shopping for this year. All I have left to buy are stocking stuffers and some random stuff for the person at work for whom I am a Secret Santa. I’m really in the Christmas spirit this year. I feel that I have a firmer grip on my life than I have ever had previously. It is a nice feeling.
I still hate going shopping though. I spent three hours yesterday running around and buying what needed to be bought while juking and stiff-arming high school mallrats and little old ladies who take up the whole aisle looking at a cheese log. I swear, people don’t know how to be conscientious shoppers, they all think they own the whole store.
I’m not too concerned with the whole “materialistic holiday” meme that floats around every year’s end. Gift-giving doesn’t operate only in some consumer capitalist mode. It is nice to be able to provide for others. My mom has had a good idea for the past several years, instead of our family buying gifts for each other, we should all donate the money to a charity in their name. Now, I like getting gifts equally as much as giving them but I admit, I can probably live without everything I get for Christmas, and giving to charity would be a truly good thing to do. Even if we did that however, I’m sure we’d still end up buying stuff for each other though.