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Christmas Gift giving- joy or chore?
I'm writing today a little hot under the colllar because I'm going to make a huge confession here-I love Christmas!! As a Christian, I love it for it's wonderful religious importance and significance but I also love the whole trappings, the carols, the spirit, the social get togethers, the cards and...the presents. I love to get presents but I really love to buy and make them for the people I love. So I married into a family of "not into presents" people. Luckily my husband's nephews (he's a little older than me so the family is all out of sync) all married around the same time and we new girls pushed for small presents as we were giving up our own Christmases and wanted the fun. I dutifully and enthusiastically bought just the right thing for just the right person all year to then be given 6 boxes of chocolates! Oh well, I was still having fun and I do like chocolate. But that too petered out and it was decided on Chris Cringle and buying for the kids. Worked fine but now SIL doesn't even want to do that, well I think the kids were still in, I'll have to check! How is buying one $30 present a year for people outside the immediate family that hard?? Anyway, I protested but I think I may give in at Sunday Lunch tomorrow because if her heart is not into the giving then it takes away from the fun I get from it-it's no fun for me if everyone thinks it's a chore! And yes, I know the presents aren't the point but they're a part of the whole package! Am I being the difficult one?
Posting my progress on the one hour a day quilt, I'm way out of whack but will get the same end result as the others in the end (hopefully). The 12-25 piece scrappy blocks are ready to be sewn together, I think they please my eye. I'm also showing you what one of my scrap containers looks like after I've been scratching around putting this together-could perhaps do with a tidy before going back on the shelf!!
Anyway, I need to go and get my kids back from Mum's.They sound like they have had a great time of fishing and seeing their cousins- and date night was fun! The radar's promised rain completely missed us the other day. Some places got up to an inch. That's life, I'll just keep the bucket in my shower that's watering my plants!
5 comments:
aw well I hope you come to a compromise :) Wow on the progress you've made those look great :) How did you keep them from being uniform? xoxo melzie
Regarding Christmas -- when the marketing folks made Christmas purchasing more important than the reason for Christmas, I got cranky. I felt so guilty, for not spending More money, then More money, I realized it was making me crazy. Now, I make gifts, usually a quilt, and over the years, everyone gets something, but not every year.
Not difficult at all. This story could have been my own and for 20+ years I tried every which way to find a solution for everyone. I quit *s* Now we find ways to give to charities and exchange only within our immediate home. So far -- no complaints.
I too am a super Christmas lover!! Luckily I married one too! we start decorating the day after our Thanksgiving and the house turns into Christmas Town. We also have people in our family that arent' big on gift giving. It's not the lack of money but the lack of creativity and imagination among other things. But I continue to do my thing because I love making and giving gifts, especially to the kiddies!
BTW, congrats on trying to recreate the Manger Scene. Your kiddies look darling!!
Oh, I don't think you are being difficult. If the shepherds and wise men could bring gifts to Jesus, then I think it ought to be part of "the whole thing." If you are getting joy from the giving, and from the receiving (because if there's no receiving, then no one can give, either!), it's a good thing.
Best of luck working this one out. My husband was one of those "everyone needs a pile of presents" kind of guys, and we all had way too much, but it gave him such pleasure! He isn't dead, though that sounds like it, but we made a pact, now that we live on the road - nothing but stockings for Christmas. There's just no room to add all that stuff!
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