Off The Cuff

Are You Gearing Up For Christmas?

Posted by: From Arkansas in Family stuff, Holidays on Oct 10 2008

Welcome back!

I have had someone ask me that. Frankly, I don’t even want to think about the Christmas that the world has in mind, especially this year. However, I do think about what to get people for that occasion. Then they will ask me what I want. Oh no. I hate that question. For one thing, the things that really matter can’t be bought. The rest are usually too expensive for anyone in our family. Nope. Not spoiled. Just thinking of things like a home of our own, a new or well cared for used car…they call them previously owned as if they aren’t exactly USED. What the heck would you call it then? Unused? It’s like getting clothes from a seller on the online auction place. “Gently used”. What does that mean, anyway? If someone wore it, it’s used. Period. Gently played with. Right. Some kid hated the toy. Mom is selling it hoping you get snookered into buying it so your kid can hate it too. See, I have that down.

Have you noticed that certain things are so cheap that if you were the seller, you might be cringing? But when you look for things to buy, it’s a whole different story. The price is through the moon. Why it’s like trying to buy a whole Ferrari instead of getting the Ferrari parts, meaning that the price is so sky high. Not good. Hey, it would be fun to have a Ferrari! I like the idea. I could put that on my Christmas wish list and someone could put one of those in my stocking any day! But usually, and bringing this back to where I started (wasn’t that nice of me? I thought so.), buying Christmas presents when you research them isn’t so hard to do. Prices are definitely up but some are not. And the auctions can be the way to go. Or sometimes we get things on a payment plan that starts a couple of months after the holiday. Now, I do not go into debt for Christmas. Nope. I just order the stuff and the payments start later. I make sure I can afford it before I start that and I keep the total LOW. All in all, this holiday shouldn’t be too bad as long as the prices don’t go so high that it takes the joy out of finding things.

The real fun is always waiting for the presents to be opened. I love seeing the happiness and joy on someone’s face when they get something they REALLY wanted. Toe socks come to mind. And that one is a family joke. One member of the family saw that another got some toe socks for Christmas. One note here. Those things are a pain in wherever you sit down. I hate the things. But this person who was quite young wanted some. Unknown to her, her mother had gotten all of the girls some toe socks. She was the last one to receive hers. She was so envious that you could see the green popping out everywhere. Since then, she has regarded the item as being just as obnoxious as I do. But her face when she opened that present was priceless. That is the type of joy and fun that happens on that day. Not bad, not bad at all.

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