ResQgeek

Because of our ski trip last week, we (obviously) could not gather with any of our extended families to celebrate Christmas.  So, now that we are home from the trip, we've started making up for that.  On Sunday evening, we went to my brother-in-law's home to visit his family.  They had been taking care of our dogs during our trip, so we were greeted at the door by two *very* excited dogs!  My in-laws had hosted a party the night before, so no one felt like cooking, so we ordered Chinese delivery for dinner, which may not be particularly traditional, but was delicious.  Afterwards, we exchanged gifts, and talked about our trips, both the one we had just finished and the other one we have scheduled for later in the winter.  My in-law's gift to my family was an offer to pay for our choice of snowmobile tours while we are in Steamboat Springs.  We just have to look at the selections and let them know which we'd like to do.  I'm leaning towards either the sunset tour or the moonlight tour, both of which include dinner, but I'll have to sit down with my wife and daughter and talk over the choices.

My brother and his family visited our parents for Christmas, and were driving home on Sunday, so yesterday we went to his home in Maryland for dinner.  My brother cooked an incredibly delicious dinner of fish and mussels, which was so good that there were no leftovers at the end of the meal.  We exchanged gifts here as well, small gifts for the kids only, and we played games with his family until it was time to head home.

My daughter and I are headed up to my parents' house on Thursday, to spend a few days visiting them.  Then, next week, we have to get back to our normal schedules of work and school.

I took the day off from work yesterday, at the request of my beloved, to help her with the last minute gift shopping.  Not exactly my idea of a wildly fun day, but we were pushing hard up against the time limit and this was about the only way it was going to get done.  We were gone from the house for most of our daughters' school day (about 9am to almost 3pm), looking for the last few gifts for tomorrow.  For the most part we were successful...we even managed to find a GPS unit for my wife (it is SO much easier to buy gifts for her when she's right next to you for consultation!).

The one thing that struck me, though, was the almost complete lack of crowds.  Here we were, two days from Christmas, and, for the most part, the stores were deserted.  The first mall we went to felt like a ghost town.  Except for the half-dozen new mothers jogging around the concourse with their babies in their strollers, the place was deserted.  About the only other people at Sears were the employees, looking bored nearly to death.  One whole section of that mall's parking lot had been rented to a car dealership to store their surplus inventory (I think it speaks volumes about the economy that a mall has space in its parking lot to rent to a car dealership during Christmas shopping season...as does the dealership's need for such storage space).

The second mall we went to was almost as bad.  I'm so used to having to fight through masses of people rushing to finish their last minute gift shopping that it was a bit surreal to be in a large mall with only two shopping days left before Christmas and find ourselves almost alone.  However, the lack of crowds made it much easier and less stressful finishing our own shopping.

I wish I could post a Christmas photo from my childhood, but my parents still retain custody of the childhood photo archives. I'll see if I can't dig through them while visiting next week, and maybe I can post picture(s) over New Year's weekend.

( Memories of Christmas eve as a child )

Last night I was sharing martip's polar bear post with my wife. Her reaction was an immediate and enthusiastic "I want one, too!" Which I guess sets our household firmly against the prevailing demographics, as I'm inclined to think such decorations are a bit tacky. In any case, I quickly quelled any impending plans to acquire a similar display for our yard by reminding my wife about our unfortunate history with lawn decorations.

Shortly after buying this house, we came into possession of a lighted nativity set (I can't remember if it was a gift, or if we purchased it). We attempted to display the set for several years. The first year, someone stole the infant figure during the night. My wife was pregnant with one of the Qgeeklets, and when she notice the missing figure, she called the neighbor and announced "Someone stole my baby!"

It took some effort, but eventually we were able to replace the infant figure (without having to buy an entire new set). We survived a couple of years without further incident, but then our nocturnal visitors returned. Not only did they take the infant, but our Virgin Mother figure vanished as well. They also attempted to take additional figures as well, but apparently left in a bit of a rush, as we found them scattered across the lawn and one of the Wise Men was in the ditch along the road about half a block away.

That was the final straw. As much as I really would prefer to have a Nativity display, we decided it wasn't worth the aggravation of worrying about the vandals. So now I limit my outdoor decorations to some icicle lights along the front of the porch, some multicolored lights in the azalea bushes in front of the porch, and a wreath with a red bow on each porch column. At least our history with vandals gives me ammunition to fight any trends towards tackiness in our decorating efforts.

With a big effort (and some minor arguing), my wife and I managed to complete our Christmas cards over the weekend so they could be mailed today. Our printers are now getting a well-deserved break after printing over 100 copies each of our card, the letter that will be inserted and a wallet size picture of our daughters. The Christmas card thing is always stressful, but this year it was complicated by the loss of our mailing list. We upgraded to a new computer earlier this year, but hadn't taken the time to transfer all the data from the hard drive in the old computer. About three weeks ago, the old computer refused to boot up, giving us a "hard drive not found failure" message. We verified that the BIOS was properly set, and then went in search of someone with a set of Windows95 (yes, the old computer was OLD) recovery disks. Finally, one of my wife's friends (who understands the inner workings of computers way better than I do) took a look at the machine. Apparently, our hard drive is DOA, and there is no cheap or easy way to recover the data therefrom. So, yesterday afternoon was spend digging through old records and making phone calls trying to determine what everyone's current mailing address was. Great fun! Somewhere around 9:30 last night, I finally sealed the final envelope. My wife will be taking them to the post office to mail today.

Except for one. All but one of our Christmas cards are being mailed within the US, and my wife can buy the stamps from a vending machine, thus avoiding the LINE at the service window. Unfortunately, my youngest brother and his wife live overseas, so that their card needs to be sent AirMail. The vending machines at the nearby post offices don't sell individual stamps in AirMail denominations, so I had to stand in line (after all it is MY brother!) this morning to mail one Christmas card. I went early, but the line was still out to the door. I waited 30 minutes to buy my 80¢ stamp. I'm just glad I didn't wait until lunch hour, because the lines will be longer then. Next year, I really have to try to remember to buy the stamp early, so I have it when the Christmas cards are done (of course with my luck, the US Postal Service will increase the rates after I buy the stamp, but before I can use it!).

So one more item to cross of my list. Now if I could just figure out what to buy everyone, I might be able to go shopping...

I remember when I used to enjoy Christmas. The excitement of decorating the house, putting up the Christmas tree, wrapping presents. The impatient waiting for Christmas morning, when I could finally find out what was in all those gifts with my name on them. The novelty of enjoying a new toy, of playing a new game, trying on new clothes. When did Christmas change?

Now Christmas is mostly a season of stress. I've been trying to get myself in the mood for the holidays, without much luck. I really haven't done any gift shopping, though I did manage to get my wife the digital camera she wants. I forced myself to design this year's Christmas cards, which have now been printed. Last night, I tried to write the annual letter to include in the card, which was a complete bust. I stared at the screen for the better part of an hour, without composing much more than a sentence or two. I simply don't know what I want to say to everyone this year. Wait, that's not true...I kind of know what I want to say, but I couldn't figure out how I want to say it. I'll give it another try tonight, hopefully with better luck. I need to get it done soon, so we can print copies of the letter, stuff the cards and letters into envelopes and get them into the mail.

I dread the shopping I have to do. My wife insists that I do the gift shopping for my family (which is fair), but I don't exactly know what to get many of my relatives. Beyond that is the stress of actually shopping this time of year. The weekend before last, I went to the local big box chain store to pick up a single household item. I stood in line over twenty minutes to pay for my $2.00 item. Then I had to navigate the car through the chaos in the parking lot before I could head home. Anyone willing to bet that the shopping environment has gotten less stressful since then? Didn't think so.

I watch my daughters as the big day approaches, and I envy their excitement. If only I could enjoy the season the way they do. It seems like such a long time since I was able too. Over the weekend I tried to express my dissatisfaction to my wife, but I'm not sure she truly understood what I wanted. I would love to simplify Christmas. Forget the presents (except maybe a couple of small gifts for the children)--What I really want for Christmas is some quiet time for reflection, to think about the past year and plan for the upcoming one. Time to enjoy my family, without worrying about the chores that need to be done. Time to relax, unwind, and forget about my worries, at least for a while.

Probably not going to happen, at least not this year. My holiday is looking to be the usual hectic schedule. Extended family obligations call, and so we run from one place to the next, worried about whether the gifts we bought will be appreciated. I'll probably eat too much food and get too little sleep. And when its all over, I'll have to come back to the seemingly endless stress of my job. Heh, Merry Christmas indeed.