D01--Holiday Sights and Sounds

This is the first entry for the Holidailies challenge to write a full month of blog entries for December.

Thank Blogger for backdating!

Today, I took a snow day because the roads were awful. Visibility was poor, and in some areas, ice knocked down power lines. It was the first snowstorm of the season.

The first signs of the holiday season are probably the commercials on tv, advertising gifts that you MUST BUY for your loved ones or else they won't love you anymore. The retail stores put up their holiday decorations the week before Hallowe'en (rationalizing that Hallowe'en is basically over anyway). At least those stores usually hold off on playing Christmas music!

A few commercials appear in early November, but once Thanksgiving week hits, there is a free-for-all. All those companies like Staples, Best Buy, and Circuit City want your business, so they promote steep discounts for Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving -- traditionally the first shopping day of the holiday season. People will stand in line overnight just to get certain items advertised in the flyers and some stores have 'secret' items on sale, which you find out about if you're one of the first people in line.

It only takes a week or so for the commercials to ramp up the guilt train. Last year, I fell victim to the "did I buy enough stuff?" We have one child -- ONE. She is six years old. What possibly could she need more than a nice toy and maybe a couple of outfits? I went crazy, buying an expensive Bratz doll and horse, and many other items. I had purchased so much stuff that I held a few items back for her birthday, in January. And she got even more stuff at the family gatherings from the grandparents. There are still a couple of toys we didn't take out of the box yet. (Yeah, a whole year later!) I was so depressed after Christmas last year because I had overspent and the kid had so many toys that she didn't know what to do with any of them. Just a few days later, she was telling me that she was bored and had nothing to play with.

!!!!!!!!!!!

But I am not letting the guilt train steal me away this year. I have a budget and I'm sticking to it. I told my sisters and my sister-in-law that I would only be buying gifts for the kids this year. I have already purchased the gifts for my nieces and nephew, and I've also bought the two gifts we need for a family party. Santa still has to do a few more things for DD. I even told DH that we should each only spend at the maximum $30 on each other this year. Surprisingly, he agreed with all my changes. I think he learned his lesson last year when he and I spent Christmas weekend baking four different kinds of cookies as gifts for the families and no one seemed to care about our gifts to them.

Another sight of the holidays is the catalogues in the mail. I've gotten two LL Bean catalogues. Plus, in email, I get ads for sales for Sears, The Children's Place, and Bass Pro. It's a neverending deluge. However, I haven't gotten any Christmas cards yet. A lot of people I know have quit sending cards, I like to send them out, because I like to get them -- but I never receive nearly as many as I give. I have my list of card recipients, cards, and stamps, but I haven't yet addressed the cards. I used to write letters to all my old friends that I keep in touch with, but these days, I just sign it. Sometimes I might jot a little note. I have a fairly small list, too, only about fifteen people. If someone hasn't responded to my Xmas card in several years, I usually mark the name off the list. If they can't be bothered to drop an Xmas card in the mail, then I guess I don't need to send them one, either.

We had some warm weather before the storm and many people put up their outdoor decorations. So now when I drive through town, I enjoy looking at all the light displays.

It's the most wonderful time of the year....