Completely OT: holiday craziness

Polly Esther skrev:

Polly, I just want to say "God bless you!" for thinking about the children at the shelter and remembering that not everyone has such a nice time during the holidays. Unfortunately, for some of us growing up, holidays were about the adults getting drunk and out of control. :-(

I think the peppermint sounds lovely! It's strong enough to "overcome" stale smells and nice and holiday smelling. :-)

Erin

Polly - do you have any mint growing in the garden? Would having your dollies sleep in a bed of mint for a few weeks - just chopped up in a box - do the job without having to spray anything?

I shop for presents all year long. I am a dedicated gifter and do my best to give good thoughtful presents. This requires planning, particularly on my budget! I special ordered DH's present in August, used money I had gotten for my birthday for the initial payment, and finished paying for it last month. A tricky dance for my purse, but I managed to get him somethng I know he will like a lot. Never could have done it if I had waited for December. Gosh, one time I bought a Yule prezzie in March/April because a particular item went at a really good price at one of my art suppliers. (March for the first part, a very nice sumi-E set, April for it's companion to complete the gift, a copy of The Pillow Book)

Everybody has their own style of gift giving. It is all good.

NightMist

I think it has a lot to do with relative perspective in this case.

With a Type A/AADHD type personality and unpleasant past Christmas memories....for several years, I really disliked the Christmas hub bub. I tried at all costs to avoid the fracas. I also didn't ever have much money anyway, so it was easier and better for me to stay in and make my gifts (they seemed to be appreciated more anyway.)

But in the past 2 or 3 years, I have discovered WHY I didn't like the Christmas "hub bub". With my personality, going out shopping or anything at Christmas time, not only dredged up old memories (as Erin pointed out, drunks tend to do more celebrating at holiday times, and not necessarily in happy ways) but the crowds and the frenetic pace, mixed with those dredged up memories, used to make me start having panic attacks. I would get more and more anxious the more time I spent in a "Christmas crowd" with all the lights, the loud music, the multitude of voices and the overall anxiousness that everyone exhibits. Especially places like Wally World, where with the clutter, the music and the crowd, I started feeling like the walls were closing in on me.

The past few years, with distance from the past and a very holiday minded husband to share new experiences with - he has taught me to enjoy the holiday again and this year, is my first year, to really get into it and even start listening to Christmas music and go out shopping the day after Thanksgiving.

I think a lot of how you perceive the holiday "madness" or "crazies" and how much you enjoy or not enjoy it, is purely relative to your own internal experiences and ensuing perception. Not to mention a little age and maturity help too, LOL. You begin to understand what everyone was lecturing about when they kept saying, "Oh, just slow down and enjoy it!"

This year, the best gift I could ever ask for, has already been delivered. A new house, my husband, both mothers and my children together on Christmas day! It will be our first Christmas Day with all of us together in the new house and the kids won't have to run off to the ex's on Christmas morning.

Yeah, I'm singing Christmas carols and taking deep, deep breaths when I go out shopping!

Hugs and Happy Holidays, whatever yours are! Tina

Ariel was/is a Mermaid...from DIsney's little mermaid movie. I would LOVE to help you with the dolls.....that's my kind of sewing :-)

Larisa, still work> Now here's a crazy. I went to the local Goodwill store and came home with a

Thank you, Erin. God blesses me all the time, Erin. I'll always remember last Christmas when DD and DSIL lost all of their possessions to Katrina. This wonderful group of quilters just covered their washed and dried tree in Christmas ornaments - handmade, home made, crafts, store-bought. It took them a long time to take that tree down and I'll bet every loved ornament is given a brand new smile when they are unwrapped and hung again. Polly

"Erin" wrote >

We will be hanging stockings for St. Nicholas tonight as well! My husband's family is of German descent, and his mother adopted the tradition from her in-laws, to help her 7 children wait those long weeks of December until Christmas! I love the tradition and have kept it for my 5 children. We all hang stockings, and get candy (our fave British import store is closed for renovations, so no Crunchies :-{ ) small toys and a DVD. We've been using this as an excuse to replace our worn-out video tapes of favorite movies with DVDs. These will come in handy for the long car ride to Indiana for Christmas.

DH has always said there is no Santa Claus, and no St. Nicholas (our kids view them as seperate entities) so he always gets a lump of coal in his stocking, and another one from Santa on Christmas. The more he says there is no Santa, the more the children believe in him! LOL

We played that scene in just the opposite manner. Any time anyone suggested or insisted that there was no Santa, I shushed them and told them to be very careful to not let their Daddy hear them. He believes. He still believes. Those children are grandparents now but they still put out carrots for Santa's reindeer. Just in case. Polly

"frood" wrote, in part > DH has always said there is no Santa Claus, and no St. Nicholas (our kids

My mom always told us that "those who don't believe don't get" I believe in Santa and he always leaves me something nice ;-)

marcella

What fun!!

however: Sinterklaas doesn't do coals - naughty people either get whacked on the behind with a bunch of twigs or put into Santa's sack and taken back to Spain - people who are naughty are sometimes given a bunch of twigs (tied at one end)

you kids are right they are two different people - Sinterklaas sensibly lives in Spain while Santa lives on the north pole - the "nutter" - who on earth likes sub zero temps?

oh and sinterklaas puts stuff in shoes not stockings ;-)

I don't know quite how long Santa would take to get from Oz to Froodland but would a small shipment of Crunchies see you through?

Ah, that explains it all right. We have to find long stockings for our once a year haul.

DH and I do stockings for each other each year. It is our one tradition, even if money is tight. We have had a few years when our only gifts to each other were our filled stockings, but this isn't one of those years. I hope I get fabric in my stocking this year. Debra in VA See my quilts at

Oh yeah! I was a teacher's aid my Senior year and printed the weekly test pages. Debra in VA See my quilts at

Oops!

Well, you could consider it _really_ early for next year ;-)

marcella