Snippets of conversation heard over the years from grandmotherly types, usually sometime in November: "Oh, I've finished my Christmas shopping: wrapping, too!" Or, in January: "oh, I'm getting a head start on my Christmas shopping."
Wellhow nice gag, I would think, gritting my teeth while roping in four rambunctious youngsters. That'll be the day.
Truth be told, I've never been a savvy, enthusiastic or efficient shopper. Get it all done in one day? Never. My feet hurt, my head spins, and I get exceedingly hungry and thirsty every two hours. And I'm terribly indecisive. Ugh. I. hate. shopping. Oh, I love Christmas and the amazing, wonderful entrance of Christ into the world, but the making of even a modest Christmas for four kids turned me into a stressed-out, snapping mom.
Whadya know, I have no children underfoot to test my sanity during December. I'm beginning to think it's not the "bad guy" commercialism that made me crazy, it was my own expectations and wound-up kids along with the million regular duties resting on my mom shoulders.
So. Seeing as how I almost AM a grandmother, I can now act like one. This includes designating a ROOM for Christmas gifts. Not a closet, not a corner of the crawlspace, not, as my mother did one year (I kid you not) the car-top carrier sitting in the garage, where we walked by every day. Sometimes moms are brilliant.
Today I lined up my few measly bags of purchases on the bed in the spare room. The Christmas room! And shut the door. No hiding. (my husband isn't a peeker.) Very easy. Very empowering. Very relaxing.
Apologies to my children. I love you. But you did make me a bit crazy in the month of December. (I just know some psychologist-type is going to comment that I ALLOWED the children to make me crazy. Granted.)
Well
Truth be told, I've never been a savvy, enthusiastic or efficient shopper. Get it all done in one day? Never. My feet hurt, my head spins, and I get exceedingly hungry and thirsty every two hours. And I'm terribly indecisive. Ugh. I. hate. shopping. Oh, I love Christmas and the amazing, wonderful entrance of Christ into the world, but the making of even a modest Christmas for four kids turned me into a stressed-out, snapping mom.
Whadya know, I have no children underfoot to test my sanity during December. I'm beginning to think it's not the "bad guy" commercialism that made me crazy, it was my own expectations and wound-up kids along with the million regular duties resting on my mom shoulders.
So. Seeing as how I almost AM a grandmother, I can now act like one. This includes designating a ROOM for Christmas gifts. Not a closet, not a corner of the crawlspace, not, as my mother did one year (I kid you not) the car-top carrier sitting in the garage, where we walked by every day. Sometimes moms are brilliant.
Today I lined up my few measly bags of purchases on the bed in the spare room. The Christmas room! And shut the door. No hiding. (my husband isn't a peeker.) Very easy. Very empowering. Very relaxing.
Apologies to my children. I love you. But you did make me a bit crazy in the month of December. (I just know some psychologist-type is going to comment that I ALLOWED the children to make me crazy. Granted.)
I doubt I'll be shopping for Christmas 2010 next month, but I'm definitely making headway.
5 comments:
Hilarious!!! Happy shopping, wrapping, and indulging, Granny. :)
You're lucky, Karen Dawkins, that you don't live down the street anymore! GRANNY??!!
My mom always hid the stuff under the bed or in the closet. I always found it. I'm a terrible child but I love being sleuth-y.
My all-time favorite hiding place was on the top shelf of each of my children's closet...behind boxes of outgrown toys & clothes. They never thought to look there. Our second best hiding place was the trunk of the car. They rode in the car every day but never had any interest in the trunk. Once they started to drive though that place was out!
I ran out of a single hiding place big enough to contain all the gifts for four children years ago. At first I'd stash them in various locales, but two Christmases in a row I had Spring surprises when I stumbled across something so well hidden that even I had forgotten about it! So I took to piling everything together in the corner of our bedroom and throwing a sheet over the huge pile. All four kids, one at a time, each with a snicker and the rolling of their eyes, felt abliged to inform me that they could "see that". Like Barb, my kids aren't home to snoop but, unlike Barb, I still use the sheet over my Christmas stash. Some habits die hard. :-)
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