1. This is a biggie; it's huge: I am not baking Christmas cookies this year. Between preparations for our holiday trip to New York and our other commitments, we just don't have time for our usual full-tilt-boogie cookie-making operation. I told Fellow Traveler that my resolution was not very strong and that she might have to stage an intervention if she saw me rooting around in the cupboards for cookie cutters. Knowing that this is going to disappoint our extended family a great deal -- we literally ship pounds of cookies every year around the country -- we're thinking of hitting a couple of local cookie walks and obtaining some mercy canisters, at least for The Kids.
2. We are not going to attend/assist at Christmas services at our church -- again because of our trip to Gotham to visit the new grandbaby, who presumably will have been born by then. (She is a week late, and her parents are angsting because they're about to lose their reserved berth -- pardon the pun -- at the nice, wholistic-like birthing center where they'd wanted to have the baby.) I've never spent a Christmas away from home before; it will be interesting. I did some research on churches in the immediate area of The Kids' Brooklyn apartment, and there's an ELCA congregation more or less around the corner -- one with a significant Chinese parishoner base. So we might be hearing the Christmas story in Mandarin on Christmas Eve. That's okay; part of the big-city experience.
3. I am not stressing over gifts this Christmas. We seriously dialed back on our Christmas buying this year, not only because of our trip but because we wanted to channel our gift-giving to people in need We really don't need anything; as far as that goes we've been trying to divest ourselves of things all year long. We were talking about this the other evening; the things we appreciate most are shared experiences, not stuff.
4. I am not sending out dozens of Christmas cards. I'd be surprised, in fact, if I sent out more than ten -- and those mostly to elder relatives. I'm a little conflicted about this because I myself enjoy Christmas cards (ooh, shiny!), and in our family we always made a big deal about displaying them during the holidays. But they do cause dead trees, clutter and a sense of obligation for recipients, and many people we know actually dislike receiving them. So -- hey -- I'm fine with not sending as many. (We will be sending some to Walter Reed Army Hospital, and probably the VA care facility in Saginaw as well, because we do know the patients there enjoy them, and sometimes don't get very many of them.)
5. I am not participating in any social-obligation faux-festivities. No joyless rounds of office potlucks, regifted candles and insincere organizational holiday blather. And I just can't stop smiling as I type this.
Bonus: For your Advent enjoyment:
6 comments:
Love the cookie picture! I can almost taste those yummy morsels. I can just imagine the restraint you must feel not to bake. And I considered that Enya video, too!
Me too! Cookies. I love them unfortunately. My only discipline is that they are my favorites right after they come from the oven--and I eat one or two then and try to give away the rest.
Well, I probably won't make cookies either, or maybe just a batch or two...
hope you enjoy the trip!
It's stressful for me NOT to bake cookies, but I'm definitely doing less. Have a great trip.
It's great that you are having such a different Advent/Christmas season in such a positive way! Hope that baby shows up soon so that things have calmed down a bit by the time you arrive. I think I actually enjoyed the work festivities when I was working, but I always worked in fairly small organizations with congenial people -- I can see how in your former workplace it would have been different.
Do you know about these parameters for sending cards to Walter Reed? There has been some incorrect information that circulates at this time of year for several years now. Here's what Snopes has to say about it.
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