We've started our Advent traditions in our little family...these are special times wrapped with all sorts of traditions and songs and family times that we remember the whole year through...
and I promise that I'll have pictures....
later...
although, if you can't wait, you can go over to my facebook page and search through my album for December Traditions...OR you can just link it here:)
But...what I want to discuss now is the shopping...the endless shopping for things for people that I never really know what to buy in the first place. It's not that I'm not perceptive, nor does it mean that I don't WANT to get something really neat for my family and friends...on the contrary...the problem is that I am scared to death of being that person that buys a really (now pardon my language here...my girlies will NOT be reading this blog entry) STUPID gift...the kind of gift that people open and smile and give you a hug and are thinking, "What the heck is this...I don't want this!!"
I fear this reaction...I'm a people pleaser...and like people to LOVE what I do for them...it's a problem I know...
Amidst all this emotional baggage that I carry concerning the christmas "gifting" season...I also struggle with distraction...
Actually, I struggle with distraction pretty much ALL the time...but that's another story...
If I were more like my sisters in law, I would have lists of every thing that I needed to purchase, at which stores I needed to peruse and the exact coupon cut for that particular item...I would recklessly search through all the ads in the paper each weekend to find the best deal on that particular item and then schedule the time to run out and get it...
However, I, on the other hand do not have a list persay...it's in my head and sometimes I write it down on a piece of paper or two or a sticky note or the back of my hand...whenever I kinda think of something that might be good and wouldn't be a bummer gift...UGH...it's like a crazy cycle of ridiculous thinking going on in my head...and so, I just guess at what I need and then get home from my hours out shopping...that I already feel guilty about having left my kids and my family time...only to feel the utter disappointment of realizing that I not only didn't achieve what I set out to do...but I came back with bags of other things that I'm going to have to go back out and return later anyway....UGH!!!
Needless to say, my christmas shopping hasn't necessarily been the MOST productive as of late...but, I'm headed out to try again tomorrow...who knows...I may end up coming back with gifts for my little nephew and my in laws...OR, I might end up coming back home with a caffeinated beverage and 4 pairs of pants in different sizes and colors of which I will need to then try on, and decide which 3 to return at a later date! Only, to begin the cycle again...
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh the gifting season...
