Let me just say, for those people who have never tried blogging: It can be SO GOOD when it comes to a) motivating yourself to DO SOMETHING and b) finding lovely people who understand and commiserate and support. Yesterday’s fretful post really helped get my rear into gear, and every comment that came in felt like a warm hug. Thank you. Let’s do some gift-fret-free bullets, shall we?
It’s Beginning to Look a Teeny Weeny Bit Like Christmas: After yesterday’s post, I very firmly told my husband that we needed to finalize the gifts now. And then I proved to him, using the UPS cost estimation feature, that it would cost us three times as much in shipping costs to wait for amazon to deliver some items vs me going to an actual store and buying them and shipping them now. That turned out to be highly persuasive. We ended up getting both my MIL and my SIL some cozy pajamas. (After so many comments in favor, I wanted – badly – to get them each a towel warmer, but it wasn’t going to work with shipping to me and then wrapping and shipping to them. Then I thought, if I can’t get a towel warmer for my MIL and SIL, perhaps I can get one for my husband and/or child?!?! But our bathroom is really, really not conducive to having a towel warmer in it, so I am going to postpone that idea for another day.) Despite my many misgivings – we Santa got Carla the Uggs that are apparently this year’s Stanley tumbler/Kendra Scott necklace/Lululemon belt bag. I was able to march right over to the mall yesterday morning and buy everything right there. I also marched right over to the bookstore and bought the books that we had been dithering on ordering for several other gift recipients; one of the books was out of stock locally, but I pushed right through that little obstacle and bought an alternative.
Mail Call: I also addressed, stuffed, stamped and MAILED my holiday cards. Did I think I had ordered twenty more cards than I actually did? Yes. But no matter. I think I got everyone on the list. I had to go to the post office to acquire more stamps, and then stood there and stamped the remaining sixty or so stampless cards. While I was stamping, an older-than-me-but-not-demonstrably-elderly man came in, mailed something, and then started chatting at me. He wanted to know what I was mailing – both he and the postal worker first assumed “wedding invitations” which strikes me as slightly odd given the timing and also my advanced age, not that a person has to be the picture of youth to plan a wedding – and then told me how he had mailed sixty holiday cards just days before, and how a long line had piled up behind him because you can only slide two or three cards at a time through the mail slot. I kept waiting for him to tell me the punch line – that someone behind him finally pointed out he could open the little door beneath the slot and put in the whole stack – but he didn’t. I debated telling him myself – for future reference – but he went on to chat at me about how many fewer cards he sends these days than in the past, and then enumerated the (all sad) reasons, so it felt as though the moment had passed. This story doesn’t have any sort of moral; I just love it when people talk to me and I can just smile and nod. (Is this what it feels like to be Nicole????)
Surprise and Suspicion at the Post Office: I had heard (perhaps from you???) that some mail carriers aren’t accepting any mail at all that’s headed to Canada. So I was prepared to be told “no” when I requested some stamps for my Canadian card recipients. Instead, the postal worker said she didn’t see why a couple of small letters wouldn’t get through. Packages, no; definitely not. But a little ol’ holiday card? That was sure to sneak by! Then she sold me some stamps and I left the post office feeling very confused. I am 100% sure I don’t understand Canada’s mail strike that well, but Wikipedia tells me that Canada Post has requested that other countries stop sending mail to Canada at all. “Mail at all” has got to include holiday cards, right? So… I’m reluctant to put my cards in the mail, is what I’m saying. I am tempted… but if I did… what would happen to them?!?!
Cookie Swap, Anyone?: I realize that I mentioned the idea of having a blogland cookie swap, and then even made cookies, and then got so caught up in gift panic that I forgot all about it. But I would still like to do it! So: if YOU are interested in doing a blogland cookie swap (even if you don’t have a blog!)!!!! Please send a link to your cookie post and/or photos of your cookies to lifeofadoctorswife [at] gmail by midnight Eastern time on 12/20, and I will add a link to your blog and/or your photos to a post I will post BEFORE CHRISTMAS. I am happy to include any information you care to share about your cookies. A deadline of 12/20 should give me time to make MORE cookies. In addition to human cookies, by the way, Carla and I are planning to also make cookies for dogs. So that will be… something.
Let’s Wrap Things Up: In addition to finalizing my gift purchases and mailing the holiday cards, I have been wrapping gifts for the out-of-state relatives. I hate wrapping gifts. It is The Worst. I am not good at it – it requires an ability to cut straight lines, for one thing, and I do not have that ability. Unfortunately, my mother has inculcated in me the firm – no, the intense – belief that wrapping adds to the specialness of the gift receiving experience. As though the beauty of the gift wrap corresponds with the amount of love you feel for the person upon whom you are bestowing the gift. “I love you so much I will make bows out of flimsy paper.” Every time I wrap a gift, I try to do so with love in my heart. Love for the gift recipient, not for the scissors or the tape or the goddamn wrapping paper that never cuts straight. I try to make it as beautiful as I can because I feel like that helps add to the joy and anticipation of the gift portion of the holiday. And yet. When I am mailing so many gifts, I am well aware that the gift wrap is likely going to tear and the bows will get smushed and the whole effect is going to be less stunning than I want it to be and the people who receive these crumpled and ripped gifts are going to think I don’t love them at all. Anyway. I hate wrapping. It is stupid and wasteful and yet it is an essential facet of the gift exchange process and I CANNOT QUIT.
I have still not decorated anything at all! Perhaps that will change TODAY.
Christmas can just be…so much. I’m sorry it comes with so much stress for you. Gah. The gifting conundrums are real!
I’m actually feeling pretty good about what I’ve got this year. A few surprises, a few things I know the kids want. But I consider myself IMMENSELY blessed we no longer exchange with anyone that isn’t actually at our house for Christmas. I cannot emphasize how much I love this decision. No sibling gifts. No niece/nephew gifts. Glorious. Actually, we do send my FIL a calendar every year. And for years I exchanged gifts with my two best friends from university but then we just…stopped. Also LOVELY!
My brother and his wife are visiting this year so they’ll bring gifts for us/I have gifts for them. But the stress and expense of out-of-town relatives/friends would kill me.
Sounds like you’re making excellent progress and that must be reducing your stress level. Why is it most of us drive ourselves crazy at the holidays and forget the most important part…. enjoying them!
Woop woop, look at you getting things done! (That’s a genuine cheer!)
I have wrapped 4 gifts. 2 are wrapped in big pieces of fabric that were sitting around; not super beautiful to look at, but also not making extra trash. When the holiday is over, the fabric can be folded up and stored and then reused in the future.
When I was reading about the man at the post office (omg cute, wedding invitations) I kept nodding and thinking, yes, this is something that would happen to me, 100% and then you mentioned me! Yes, that is what it’s like to be me. This week at Superstore alone I had five involved conversations with five random people about the following: Merry Berry Bubly flavoured water, the song Jingle Bell Rock, Silk Peppermint Mocha oat creamer, what’s the difference between regular Cool Whip and light Cool Whip, and how much busier the store is going to get in the coming weeks. I feel like it takes me forever to get anywhere these days, everyone is so holiday chatty! And I guess I am too.
Re: the postal strike. The answer is that if you mail anything, it’s probably going to be stuck in a mail bag at the border somewhere. Canada Post isn’t delivering ANYTHING including important things like passports, and small businesses are just wrecked. Parcel deliveries are swamped, it’s a whole mess, and it’s been like a month now. It’s a disaster. I have a whole stack of cards here and I have to wait to mail them so I hope you’re going to enjoy your Christmas card when it arrives in July (god I hope that’s a hyperbole). I mailed a bunch of postcards pre-strike and a few people in the US said they got theirs, but Elisabeth’s is…somewhere. Maybe she’ll get it maybe not.
I’m in for the cookie swap! This weekend we are doing gingerbread people.
Wrapping is the worst and I hate it. Lololol I like how you convinced your husband by pointing out shipping costs.
I feel the same way about wrapping gifts! It is such a waste. And YET!
I haven’t even made my holiday cards yet, this is the worst. I am ashamed.
I really really need to get my holiday out of town gifts shipped out. It is getting down to the wire.
I love this: “Every time I wrap a gift, I try to do so with love in my heart. Love for the gift recipient, not for the scissors or the tape or the goddamn wrapping paper that never cuts straight.”
Now that North’s home I’ve been hoping cookies will magically appear, but they do have three papers to write, so it may be a while before that happens.
I am with you on gift wrapping completely. Fortunately my kids really enjoy doing it so I set them loose (except for theirs!) Carla is crafty, right? Maybe she can take over next year!
You have done VERY well! I’m impressed. I didn’t even know about the mail strike in Canada. I live close enough that I could drive stuff over the border, but it would be a bit of a hassle. 🙂 I’m terrible at wrapping even with lines on the paper as a cutting guide. I’m in too much of a hurry!
Ugh, the mail strike. I have just gone into denial about it. Not sure if we’re going to courier our gifts to Matt’s relatives or wait! Not sure if I will actually write the Christmas cards I ordered multiple photos for! Using Amazon which I hate using EVEN MORE. Giddy hysterical laughter.
I love wrapping gifts at the start of wrapping gifts. I love a pile of wrapped gifts. I love choosing paper that compliments the other paper. I try to choose newsprint with patterns now in the hope that it can be recycled because I DID watch An Inconvenient Truth (or maybe just read a summary). But I have way too much to wrap and at a certain point my hands ache and everything is a mess and it all devolves.
We have snow. I have decorated. I haven’t destroyed the house as much as I sometimes do when Matt’s away. I’m going to go out for a few last (hopefully) gifts right now and then start baking.
I mailed my cards before I knew about the postal strike in Canada. I hope it makes it to the recipients in time. I feel terrible for all the businesses impacted by the strike. I haven’t really read up on it but this is such a dire time to go on strike! Which I know is a negotiating tactic and yet it doesn’t seem to have made a difference. I better go read an article about the strike.
I am glad you were able to make some decisions! Cozy pajamas are always great! I am intrigued by this towel warmer but our bathroom isn’t great for something like that either. It is so terribly designed with the towel bar across the room from the shower. WHY. It must have been designed by a man. Sorry, no woman would be like – yes let’s put the towels as far as possible from the bathroom. I mean the bar is right next to the soaker tub but who takes baths regularly? I used it once when I was pregnant and that is the only time it’s been used. So I really wish the towel bar was next to the shower and across from the rarely-used bath. Sigh.
There is something to be said about typing out all the things you need to do in a blog post to light a fire under you, isn’t there?
When you said, “Is this what it feels like to be Nicole??” I laughed out loud.
Although I knew about the Canadian mail strike, I went ahead and sent my one card through figuring it will get to the intended recipient eventually (I hope).
You went with the pjs! Yay. Doesn’t it feel good to strike those two gifts off your list?
I don’t mind wrapping – unless I put it off and have a huge pile in front of me that needs wrapping. As far as bows/ribbons for mailed gifts? I just skip them because they will get crushed.
I sent a bunch of Canadian Christmas cards and maybe they will be a nice surprise in May! I have had friends who were not super organized and have sent holiday cards in February before, and it was kind of nice to get a one off. I guess with Canada though, they are going to get a deluge!
It sounds like you knocked off a bunch of things at once, and who doesn’t love comfy PJs? I think wrapped gifts are very pretty and I am sure that your recipients are happy to have a nice thing to put under the tree!
I used to feel like gift wrapping was super important and added to the specialness of the gift. But then to watch the recipient either a. tear is apart with no care, or b. take forever and a day to meticulously “save the paper” made me so frustrated that I decided gift bags were the way to go. And I’ve never looked back!
I’m glad you’ve made progress on your shopping! It’s true that shipping prices will increase the closer we get to Christmas – that’s good incentive to get it done!
As crafty as I am I hate gift wrapping. It never looks good. I need a ton of tape. The husband finds this overly amusing. Arghhh so you are in good company.
I once received a gift from my aunt where she had copied the entire Christmas story onto the paper. I didn’t want to unwrap it. So much work. I still think about this gift so I fear the wrapping part does enhance the experience if done right.