I've noticed groundhog day creeping into my life ever so slightly over the winter months. My daily routine has been the same. The car drives in the same direction. We have the same repetative rota of winter meals, on and on it goes in ever decreasing circles. On Sunday we had one of the first warm sunny days in months and I felt the cobwebs mercifully melting away
Over here in
Australia, between now and Christmas, we have an empty
calendar celebration wise - sadly, we do not celebrate Halloween,
(individuals do but its not a national thing)
We do not pause
for Thanksgiving. From now on ?
its a downhill run, and from here I
can already see the tops of the Christmas trees. Oh,
and is that a sleigh bell I hear in the distance?
The Christmas
Grand Plan site informed me that
there are ONLY 102 days till Christmas, With that in mind, and
the adrenaline rush that followed, I
set off to a new shopping 'maul' to
look at new stuff with Christmas gift possiblities in mind.
Since we
simplified (click on link here) our lives,
gifts have been kept to a bare minimum. The DD's mostly get a ca$$h
boost to their coffers, as buying gifts for them has become almost
impossible. Much easier to part with some ca$h rather than buy gifts they won't
like or need.
Dh usually gets a small gift, friends receive smallish gifts too.
We used to give
the kids stocking fillers, which they enjoyed
when young, once they became teenagers though, they emphatically told me
to stop with this tradition!
Christmas
ends costing us a ridiculously small amount in $$ terms, but that does
not include food shopping. We do spend a bit more than we usually do on
food/nibbles/gourmet treats over the festive season, but we also have summer here so it
becomes a Christmas/ summer food combo. I will write about our Christmas trads
closer to date.
Since I love to
be so organised, all that is left to do is to wait for the gift wrap to arrive
in the shops and then I plan to beat all the crowds and post cards, packages
nice and early!
Just watch me !
Planning to be first in that Post office queue this year!
Still on the To
Do list:
sort and wrap
overseas gifts
post early to
beat the rush
xmas cards are
addressed and ready to go
Find/buy those
last minute gifts before they are snatched up in shops
finish my annual
online newsletter for family and close friends
buy summer
wardrobe for DD junior
Look for
suitable prom dresses for DD junior while they are available in shops over the
summer season! ( more on THIS topic grrrr!
another time)
Exit one
whirling dervish holiday planner!
Updated: Thursday, 16 September 2004 10:24 PM NZT
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