December Madness

buy. consume. Buy. Consume. BUy. CONSume. BUY! CONSUME!

Ok.

This year must be the first year I haven't lost my marbles about gifts. Usually I'm trying to figure out who wants what, or whether [insert name here] will like my gift, or "OMG! What if [name] doesn't like THIS gift. Then I better get/make another gift." and then 5 gifts later I force myself to stop buying/making things and instead opt to worry about said gift(s) until Christmas day. It has been a horrible scene, leaving me depressed and unable to enjoy a holiday I loved so much in the past.

What's made this year so different? Easy, I've decided not to make gifts for my family. It's taken me several years to realize that they don't apprecaite the gift making as much I as enjoy putting the effort into creating them. So this year I took their wish list, even if it meant getting measley gift certificates, and became a consumer-drone.

Although, the gift-buying process wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, just for the simple fact that I didn't have to put any of the purchases on my credit card. I had a complete re-wiring in my hardware that somehow enabled me to save up enough to not freak out about cost. Knowing I don't owe $$ with $$$$$$ interest afterwards is very gratifying. I actually enjoyed shopping!

Most of that enjoyment came from shopping online. No crowds. No uncertainty about which store still has a particular item in stock. No angry drones. No testy sale clerks. Just me and my Mac. If every holiday could be this relaxing.

The best part is that I'm almost done. Total shopping time: maybe 4 hours (including searching for bargains). Awesome. And if time permits I might make a little something for the family so I can capture that "oh. um. thanks" expression. It wouldn't be Christmas with out it.