Did you all go shopping? Find any great deals out there in the madness?
Not me -- I did make a trip to the grocery store with the kids to get food for the dogs and something for the people to eat, too. But Christmas shopping? Nope, not yet. Haven't even started. Sigh...
Oh, I have good intentions. But I am derailed by the million other things that need to get done around here -- work, kids, sleep... sleep... eat... sleep...
The fact of the matter is that our holiday preparations have been, umm... lacking in the last few years. Gone is the day when Scott and I sat down together and drew up a list of the people for whom we're shopping, browsing and window shopping and planning a couple of months in advance. Oh, we still make a list, but it's just names that get crossed off as we find gifts.
It's been harder the last several years as Scott's professional schedule has picked up. We've lost our weekends and, with the kids, it's a thousand times harder to shop in the evenings during the week. This actually makes me pretty sad -- we used to have so much fun finding the perfect gifts for the people we love. Now, we browse online after the kids go to bed, place a huge order, and hope everything shows up on time.
It's kind of sapped some of the joy of the season, at least for me. It's fun to get all bundled up and trudge out in the cold, scurrying between stores, stopping for hot cocoa. I'm kind of jealous of the people who join the Mardi Gras of holiday shopping. At one time, I would receive an invitation for me to "go out with the girls," but after a couple of years of using Black Friday as an alternate Thanksgiving with my family, followed by a couple of years of me having very small breastfeeding children, followed by a couple of years of Scott working like a dog all day on Black Friday, the invitations have floated away -- not that I blame anyone, I haven't been able to go anyway.
Maybe I feel like I'm missing out because there's something inherently female about shopping fantastic sales. I don't have many female friends, so I can feel very acutely the sting of not having a pick-up-the-phone-and-gab gal pal. But then again, I'm not really a phone kinda gal. I sometimes just feel left out as I work all week and, during this season, parent all evening and weekend alone. Nothing could be worse than the painful loneliness I felt in 2008 when Scott was in NYC for three weeks, but living out in the prairie can sometimes feel isolating, the stern wind sometimes sweeps away my holiday cheer.
So, anyway, enough of my pity party -- I hope you all had a super shopping day!!
1 comment:
hey, i don't see it as a pity party, just you sharing about how you feel!! i was also envying the groups heading out, and i wished someone invited me! i would have liked to go shopping, too, but went for the comfy-lazy online route. loved your belly pic -- very cute!!
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