My desktop holiday trees.
So we’ve given Thanks for Thanksgiving and have no doubt have Christmas Under Control *
Well, I do, but I only bought a couple of people presents and they (and I) have needs and wants that can be easily handled by catalogues.
Well, if you’re feeling terribly extravagant darling..
I actually rather like that approach to buying gifts for someone. I would be more than happy to provide the link to the book I’d like or even the dreaded Gift Certificate: I love them. To some people it says “I don’t care about enough about you to find out what you really want.” I think it says “I love you enough to contribute monetarily to your quest to own that Orange Vuitton purse shaped like a bowling ball, but not enough to actually approve of the bag.”
“If I don’t get it I’ll DIE!”
*note: my hats off to all the people who work to keep those holiday balls we are all juggling airborne. How anyone does it today without prescription drugs I’ll never know. So kids, do yourself a favor and say a silent “thanks” to everyone from the parents who had to sit though “If I don’t get it I’ll DIE!!” to the poor UPS driver stuck in a snow drift who’s hearing is supervisor bleat “If they don’t get it they’ll DIE!!” Let’s all breathe. It’s a PlayStation not a pancreas, so let’s just be happy for that.
What are your holiday plans, and are they all planned? Let us know in the comments.
Images: my iPhone, Wikimedia Commons
All shopping done for Xmas Tom.
Cards went out December 1.
Xmas Eve we fill our table with friends, Jin does his famous Roast Pork & Crackling.
This year we are trying something new because of my meltdown last year. Xmas Morning breakfast of Toasted Xmas Ham and Cheese Croissants and Mimosas with BFF Kath and her Dad.
Boxing Day we are off to see Cique Alice.
That’s as busy as we want it.
Portia xx
You’re great to have gotten that done and the Xmas brunch sounds like a good idea. Although if I looked at a mimosa cross-eyed these days it better be from bed, because that’s where it’s going to send me.
I saw somewhere on YouTube someone making a holiday mimosa with a splash of pomegranate and blood orange juice. I might try it with one of TJ’s sparkling tea drinks.
Oh, I like this idea! Blood orange juice, some pomegranate juice and something sparkling. I will experiment with this. It could make a good warm weather drink too.
I think it was an Elvira Halloween cocktail (it had edible glitter)
Halloween and Elvira and edible glitter makes this even more fun. I don’t think it needs alcohol though.
I think it’s obvious by now that I have little interest in holidays. The only one I like is Halloween, the spooky, pagan one. I think gift certificates and cash are excellent gifts unless you know what someone wants.
I did get a chuckle (or two) from your post. You reminded me of a friend/acquaintance of my daughter’s a long time ago. He could be pleasant but was a passive-aggressive user of people and non-stop whiner saying how awful cash gifts were. So, when he wouldn’t say what he wanted for Xmas, I didn’t give him anything. I apologized and said I didn’t know what he wanted and I could not give him cash because of how much he hated and loathed cash gifts and didn’t want to hurt his feelings. He then insisted – too late – that cash would have been great. (I know, but it makes me and daughter chuckle even today.)
Hey, live by the sword.
I love cash. It is also a good thing to have a small amount on hand for emergencies. Like Monte Beragon, I’ve never shrunk from a $50 bill because it smelled of grease.
Amen and ditto!
I don’t know Monte Beragon – never saw Mildred Pierce – will check it out.
Monte was a swine. But a $50 dollar bill was worth a couple of grand today
That’s right! I hadn’t thought of that part.
One of my adult sons wants a candle that smells like petrichor for Xmas, so I did research and bought DS & Durga Concrete After Lightning which really does smell like it. Arielle Shoshanna threw in a sample of the scent as well as other samples, too — gotta love them!! Excited to have a reason to buy a fragrance gift.
You’re a good mother!
I wish there was one thing I could buy 10 times and give it to everybody as a present. I spend too much time looking for the nice and inexpensive gifts. I usually ask my Mum and daughter what they want, the others get what I think they need: books, cosmetics/perfume, jewellery, acessories…Kids always get something their parents would not buy them. Just because.
I love giving exactly what it asked for. A bit boring, but in the end you’re happy and I am too.
When I managed a Clinical Research Facility I used to get my Charge Nurses all the same thing, or the same theme of gifts. Manicure sets & L’Occitane Shea butter hand creams were the most well received from both sexes
I think very few people would get sniffy about that. Those L’Occitane Shea butter anythings are perfect hostess gifts.
I keep a L’Occitaine tube in my bag at all times!!!!
I think at this point most adults would rather you facilitate their weird purchases via gift cards or crowd funding rather than sending them yet more socks or a sweater. Gardeners are the easiest though as they’ll always be happy with plants.
Hols this year … no travel (thank goodness), light the menorah from the 14th, xmas lunch on xmas day, Indian food on New Year’s Eve.
That sounds wonderful. I’d like to make Indian food more of a tradition but the ones in my neighborhood don’t last..
“it’s a playstation not a pancreas” hahahahahaha truer words were never spoken, my friend. I have a couple friends with whom I exchange “surprise” gifts, which is fun. But the kids are very much wanting specific things which I am more than happy to buy them, frankly. I had my years of fun picking things out that I thought they might like.
Yeah, and I always find about 50 things I “need” in addition to the 5 ones for them I thought they’d “like.”
I absolutely prefer gift cards, or even cash, rather than some random gift, which is alas what I tend to get. Oh well!
Ah we,, every thought counts. And there’s always the gift receipt..
Tom, this was so hilarious! I have a big family event at which everyone drinks hot chocolate (and later harder stuff if they’re old enough) and gets a gift. So I thought I’d just die if I didn’t get that Brookstone tabletop s’mores maker for half price from Walgreens.
I saw the circular, which they denied existed in store! Then I saw it on sale again, ordered it online for in-store pick up. Now, it’s mine, all mine! And s’mores will be had!
A world with no s’mores is not worth living in..
Or Mallomars… which are just S’mores in solid form