I was thinking maybe next year I’d track all the hours I spent shopping for and wrapping presents, writing and sending Christmas cards, etc. Almost immediately I thought NO LET’S NOT. First of all: probably we don’t wish to know, especially if we might then be tempted to tally up the hours spent on Christmas preparation by the OTHER adult member of the household. Second of all: a large portion of it is HAPPY BUSYNESS, and we do not make a tally of our happy busyness as if it were a work timesheet. This is also why I don’t want my phone telling me how many hours I spent playing Love Nikki Dress-Up Queen this year.
But gosh it is a lot of time and a lot of aforethought. I didn’t have work today, and I DO have work tomorrow, Friday, and Christmas Eve, so after the kids were off to school I went directly to the grocery store, where I did our last Big Shop before Christmas; I’ll do one more small run-in probably on Friday, maybe Saturday, but I want that to be brisk and Essentials Only. Then I came home and wrapped presents. This involved NUMEROUS side-quests of various kinds: writing explanatory notes to go with a couple of peculiar gifts (I got someone the Ennui Duck); wrapping a candy bar with a print-out of the item that is arriving late; opening more packages that arrived while I was wrapping. I also sorted all the stocking stuff into piles, and then bagged them so they’ll be ready for putting into stockings.
The main issue this year, I think, is that I took on a LOT more fun Christmas activities all at once, most of them gift-related (a workplace Secret Santa; workplace Yankee Swap; little co-worker gift bags; items for a local gift drive; etc.), and I would definitely want to do all those things again next year, because they were all exactly the kind of fun I like—but I need to make sure I budget the extra time and energy for them, because this year I did not, and there were several moments where I experienced fleeting feelings that were not entirely festive.
Well. OVERALL it HAS been festive if a little frantic, and now that I am in the last eddying whirls of preparation, I am starting to have more time to enjoy reading Christmas stories by the light of the Christmas tree; gazing appreciatively at the Christmas cards up on the wall around a door frame; gazing appreciatively at the Christmas ornaments; making sure I have used all of my Christmas mugs at least once.
I keep forgetting what day it is and when Christmas is. I was off work starting yesterday at 12. And we are due for a big snow storm—complete with snow, wind, and frigid temperatures (4-5 inches of dry snow, with 40 mph wind gusts, and windchills at -40 is a bad situation). So while Christmas isn’t until Sunday, I had to make my last trips to the store yesterday and today because there’s no way I’m leaving the house until possibly Saturday. The local weather people have really played this storm up because obviously a lot of people were planning on traveling tomorrow and Friday and that will be a very bad idea. I suspect that there will no travel recommended across the entire state by some time tomorrow.
I’m not sure if I will make it to my parents, who are 2.5 hours away and live on a farm, at all. I’m playing it by ear and will maybe try Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning. We’ll see. I’m pushing for a celebration sometime in January instead.
But I have a warm house, lots of junk food, fun TV to watch, and wine. So I’m relatively content.
I’ve been thinking that I operate near capacity year round. I need to find a way to remove the regular tasks in December to make room for the fun Christmas stuff. I too am down to one big shop and maybe one gift to buy online. I delegated something to my husband as well (made him a list, said pleas take care of this). A good thing is that for us things slow down by Christmas Day and we have a genuine slow week after.
OMG. Tracking how much time/effort/mental energy I put into Christmas would only make me resent the other adult member of the household. I know I do much, much, MUCH more already. But having an actual tally would not make for a festive season. As you said, a lot of it is happy busywork that I usually enjoy doing. I should not spoil those feelings.
We have a blizzard warning for Friday and will still be getting lake effect snow Saturday. So I moved up my big shop to tomorrow but doing it as a pick up. I should have listened to my inner nag and swapped my to do list so I did the grocery order sooner. The pick up times that were left were in the evening. BUT! this store routinely gets my grocery orders ready 2-3 hours earlier than I requested. I’m sure they are swamped for pick up/delivery and even in person shopping. So if my order doesn’t get done earlier, it’s ok. I am worried about items being out of stock when they do my shop, though. I’ve got a back up plan that I will implement tomorrow morning where I can get a couple of crucial items from another store. We have plenty of food and if we don’t get everything that I planned for Christmas dinner, we can make do and it will be fine.
The last of the gifts arrived today so that is one less thing to worry about.
Hahaha “side quests” yes. I’m glad your busyness is happy. I love gift wrapping and it is the only thing I regret about going no-gift at our house. We do still have stockings (and they are very good) so I do a lot of little wrappings for those while listening to an old holiday episode of This American Life and having tea and cookies. Behind a locked door because my kids are home on break so help me.
I am happy that I’ve taken the week off AFTER Christmas this year, but I do hate that I can’t really start enjoying the “all is calm” part until after I finish working tomorrow afternoon. Yours sounds nice, Christmas stories and mugs being used. I am going to put that on my list of Things to Look Forward To on Friday.
Yay for time to read and enjoy sipping from your Christmas mugs! Things seem to have settled here a bit, which is nice. All the cookies are baked, all the presents are wrapped (except for a small handful). Everyone’s packages have arrived at their destinations. All I have left is a big grocery trip tomorrow and a smaller one on Friday.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, Swistle! (Sorry about the all caps — my autocorrect did that, and it seems an appropriate reflection of the semi-deranged feeling I’ve been carrying around all month, so it stays.)
*smacks head* How the hell did I forget Christmas mugs?! I have some and use them every year immediately after Thanksgiving. Have I used ONE this year? No.
You are very wise to not do that tally. That would not make for a Merry Christmas.
I just did the last of the baking and most of the gifts have arrived and some are already wrapped. So, I am also in the quiet, less frantic run up to Christmas moment. Thank God, because I am exhausted.
Super curious to know what you settled on for the workplace gift exchange? And what did you get?
I’d been very drawn to the silly/fun ideas (the feather lamp, the ennui duck, etc.), but in the end decided that since it was my FIRST swap with this group, I would go safe: so I bought a nice throw blanket. It was traded one time, which is as much as ANYTHING was traded, so that was satisfying if not as thrilling as one might hope. I ended up with a cookie jar that was so enormous, I had Paul drill holes in the bottom of it so I can use it as an outdoor planter. And I got good information about what people bring, so I feel like next year I can feel free to do something a little funnier if I want—though I could also stay with the nice useful item if I wanted to.
Did you see that they’re making a Love Nikki movie?! Probably yes since you’re still playing, but just in case, the trailer is gorgeous: https://youtu.be/ypmFOS5zmyU
!!!!!!!!!!!
I feel like I’m forgetting something important. The end of November/beginning of December was really busy and then rather suddenly everything was pretty quiet. And my to do list seems to be largely done? I’ve been mildly sick this week and there’s been plenty of time for resting and yet everyone is still getting to where they need to be and my list continues to dwindle. My husband is picking up some extra, worried I will push and move from mildly sick to really sick, but that’s not really accounting for it… Either we have really got this year or the shoe is about to drop.
“fleeting feelings that were not entirely festive” hahahahah omg yes.
I adore that ennui duck. And I was not familiar with the term “Yankee Swap” and I am amused by the “amused and impractical” label for the gifts that are exchanged. Also I guess this is what we do at our Christmas party every year (my FB post said “the Christmas steal-a-gift game, wherein we begin as loving friends and descend into spite, wrath, and vindictiveness.”
i am very susceptible and after reading this post i downloaded love nikki. ANYWAY i am enjoying it HUGELY, it is really testing my “never spend actual money on a phone game” stance (which is how i know i must remain firm lol) – would love a post about your experience playing if you ever felt like it!!