Obligatory Christmas/End of the Year Post

I made this!

I haven’t written in a while. Work has been really busy which has meant that by the time I get home I am exhausted  and the idea of spending more time on the computer to update my blog just is not appealing. However, with a couple holidays happening since my last post, I feel that it is important to update. The problem is, I have a horrible memory and can’t remember all the details so I am probably going to leave out a lot of what happened. Sorry.

Christmas Time Things

All in all Christmas wasn’t half bad. I have decided to not spend too much timing moaning about the things I wasn’t able to do and focus on the things I did accomplish and experience. I had a great (albeit) rushed Friendsmas up in Bellingham. It was filled with great food and friends and was exactly what I needed to kick my butt into the holiday spirit. Stephanie made an amazing feast for us and it felt good to connect and laugh with some of my closest friends.

Somewhere in there, we celebrated a friend’s birthday at one of my favorite restaurants and took a walk through the Seattle Center to look at all the Christmas lights. Our good friend, Brad was in town (he is in the Navy) and it was good to spend some time with him as well. The lights around the Center were beautiful and again, the amount of fun a laughter that was had was definitely good for my soul.

My work had a party to celebrate the holidays, and (totally bragging here) I think I got the best gift out of the white elephant gift exchange…a BRANDNEW Timbuktu messenger bag!!! I know…totally lucky.

Christmas Eve morning I spent with my family. My mom is having a hard time coping with the change of how holidays should/might be celebrated because of a growing family. Mainly I think that she wants every holiday to be celebrated with her and that is just not going to work anymore. So most of the morning was spent getting a guilt trip from her about how Andy and I weren’t actually going to be with “my family” for the holiday. This dampened my happy holiday mood a little bit, but it was okay because Andy’s family totally improved it. Christmas down in Naselle was fun and guilt free. We played a ton of board games, ate way too much food, and I learned how to crochet. AMAZING!

Then I spent my Christmas break sick. Lame, but I did get to watch a lot of movies.

Our new years was laid back. We had some people over to play games and eat burgers. Everyone left pretty early so it was just Andy, my sister, and myself ringing in the new year. Which was nice because I was with the two people whom I love more than anything else in this world (not being overly dramatic at all).

So that is the recap of my holidays. As mentioned,  I am sure there is a ton of stuff I left out, but what I enjoyed the most was spending time with the people I love and honestly having time off from work to refresh my brain (it was getting quite the work out there towards the end of December).  2011 is going to be an exciting year I think. There are marriages happening, babies being born, cars being paid off, and hopefully houses being bought. Cheers!

I think I wrote the same thing last year

I am beginning to realize something about myself. I don't like Christmas. Let me clarify...I don't like the gift giving. I hate it actually. Each year I try to plan ahead and make lists or try new ways of "giving" gifts, but in the end I hate it still. I am being completely honest here, the perfect Christmas for me would involve NO GIFTS!!! There I said it. In fact this year Andy and I aren't exchanging gifts at all. Instead we are using the money  towards a new dresser that we desperately need.

I have no idea what I am going to do for gifts this year. I have tried to enlist the help of my husband, but he hates this part of Christmas even more than I do, so I really feel like I am on my own here. Today I am getting off work early to get some Christmas shopping done, and I have little to no idea (not to mention money) as to what I am going to buy people.

On the flip side, I have no idea what people should buy Andy and I. We have more than enough stuff. We don't even have room for all the stuff we have. That is again why I am so anti-gift. I think once you get to a certain age the idea of gifts becomes irrelevant, because you start wanting/needing really expensive things. For instance, this is what I would like our Christmas list to look like;

• A new bed (peferrable solid wood)
• A new dresser
• A kitchen hutch
• A new TV
• A new artifical Christmas tree (I am pretty sure ours is on its last leg)

Okay, I feel like I should stop being so grumpy about it. I should try and see the silver lining. I have friends and family who I love and who love me in return. I just feel that there is so much pressure associated with this day and I know that there would be one really easy way of getting rid of all that stress. My future plans is to own a house and throw a huge Christmas potluck. Gifts would be strictly forbidden. Instead there would be good food and friends. To mee that is how you celebrate a holiday.