I almost went to bed without writing anything today, not on paper, on my blog, nowhere. So, I had to jump online and just post a quick one.
We celebrated Christmas with our friends today. My (very pregnant and due any day now) friend Bekki was kind enough to let me host it at her house (my own home has been overrun by a toddler and I can't seem to get ahead in cleaning after him - or myself), so I made my famous Chicken Quesadilla Casserole, some yellow rice, some rice pilaf (which The Boy loved), and an Aztec salad (the dressing is strained yogurt and salsa - no kidding). And then I left my leftovers at their house, so I have to swing by tomorrow. No big.
Bekki got me a book called The Big Green Purse, which was so timely as it corresponds nicely with my primary resolution for 2009. Reading the first few pages, though, I've discovered that I have already made some green shifts in my life, and that makes me feel really good. But it also points out areas where I can certainly improve - which were the things I most needed to see, anyway.
I also received a gluten-free cookbook (which will help me make gluten-free foods, in addition to having no gluten among its pages). The Boy is okay with wheat now, but he had such a bad reaction to my breastmilk whenever I was eating wheat, so I'm not entirely convinced that he's never going to react to wheat ever again. As such, I'd like to know more about gluten-free cooking, master a few recipes and introduce them, and overall prepare myself for any future sensitivities. And if he never reacts to wheat again, I'm okay with that, too. I would still have mastered some good, healthy recipes, anyway.
I really scaled back on Christmas this year, for which I was quite proud of myself. Everyone had lots of little things to unwrap, but I didn't spend a whole lot of money on anyone. Usually, I would spend around $30-50 on each person - with eight adults and one child (plus the one on the way) in the mix, that is quite a chunk of change. So, I really reduced it, made a serious list, watched for sales and used coupons, and only spent an average of less than $25 per person. And I'm inordinately pleased with the presents I gave this year, too.
Anyway, the year has started out nicely. The Boy was in good spirits most of the day (and willingly tried a black bean, which he later spit out and handed back to me), I got a lot of stuff done last night, and I'm in pretty good spirits. Tired, but happy.
And you really can't ask for more than that.
]]>At lunch today, I opted to escape my desk for a few moments and run some errands. I wanted to get some bins for Mr Potato Head pieces (which I did, only I don't like them and will bring them back tomorrow) and walked away with Christmas presents for the coworkers and teachers for 2009! What, you ask, did I find? Why, 3-ounce candles in tiny jars - for 50 cents apiece! It was too good of a deal to pass. I got 36 candles for less than $20, and they'll keep well because they're candles!
I also got a present for my friend's son's birthday later this summer, already stored in my closet so that my own little boy won't try to play with it. It's a toy that's regularly $45, and I got it for $21. Unbelievable.
So, all told, I saved more than I spent. And that is something that would have made Mom proud.
Though, she'd probably ask why I only got 36 candles...
]]>I'm feeling uninspired.
I have a lot of work to do. I ought to work on it. But I'm over it, I'm tired, and I want to call it a day.
Except that I need to stay for at least another hour because I came in a bit late.
Meh.
Christmas cards are almost done. I have 16 more to assemble and 2 more books of stamps to buy, and then I'm all done for another year. Woo-hoo! However, I have decided with all certainty that, yes, I am going to make Christmas cards to sell in an Etsy shop. I ought to make a few ocassion cards, too, and try my hand at selling those. I'm not very good at creating elaborate cards; I do much better with the homemade mass-produced variety. As such, my cards won't be terribly pricey (which means I won't be raking in the dough), but I hope they'll make me a little money. Which reminds me: I ought to get started on some Valentine's Day cards if I'm going to try selling something early this year.
Meh.
I took The Boy's classmates' presents to school this morning and left them with the teachers to label and distribute to the kids via their cubbies. The problem with his daycare is that while, yes, he's with certain kids all the time, there are also a few who are only there 4 days a week instead of 5, and those are the kids I might miss. Better, then, to let the teachers figure it out. I asked them to call me and let me know if I forgot anyone, but I haven't heard from them. I'm guessing I covered everyone.
Tonight, I need to wrap the coworkers' Christmas presents. I found these really cute dated ornament frames at the Red Dot Boutique for a dollar apiece, and I've made those the office gifts this year. I purchased enough for my husband's coworkers, too, so those all need to get wrapped and labeled. And, for good measure, I picked up little boxes of chocolates (also for a dollar), too, just in case I missed anyone.
And I've got laundry to do. The Boy is down to his last two clean footed pajamas, which may or may not last us through tonight.
Meh.
So, with all of the things I know I need to do when I get home, I'm a little distracted. And I'm taking next week off from work (which makes my sleep deprivation all the more problematic), so I need to make sure my desk is completely in order and my reports set for easy population and distribution next week in my absence.
I just want a break. And I want it to start now!
]]>There is only one person left on my list without a corresponding present wrapped and in the locked guest bedroom (not under the tree because there are little hands - whose I will not say - that are anxious to practice tearing off the paper), and I am at an absolute loss of what to get her for Christmas!
My friend B used to be the easiest person on my list. We like a lot of the same things, we enjoy the same crafts, and, well, we just knew what the other liked! It's not to say we no longer have similar interests, but she's going to be a new mom (Baby M is due in January), and I'd like to get her something not baby-centric but still useful her first year as a mom.
Any ideas? I'm at a serious loss. (And for my male neighbors who are fathers, your input would be greatly appreciated!)
]]>I'm really not a Scrooge when it comes to Christmas. I absolutely love Christmas. It's more than the lights and pretty decorations. It's the feeling you get when you've found the perfect gift for someone, the anticipation of seeing the look on someone's face when it gets unwrapped, the satisfaction of knowing you've spread some cheer. And, for the second year, anyway, I'll have the joy of knowing that everything I've bought has been paid for outright, and not on credit. Which only means that January's credit card bill will be a happy one, indeed. (Well, not exactly happy. Happy would be a non-existent balance. But it will be happier.)
So why do I feel like such a Scrooge right now?
I submit the list of one of the needy families my workplace adopted this year:
Kid #1 (20 yrs old):
Best Buy gift card
Bible - travel size approx 5 x 8 - The Message
Sports Authority gift card
American Eagle gift card
Kid #2 (17 yrs old):
i Tunes gift card
Boss DD3 Digital Delay Guitar Effects pedal
Boss RC-2 Loop Station Guitar Effects pedal
3 packs of Elixir Polyweb Electric Guitar strings .10 gauge
Fallout 3- Video game for X Box 360
Season 1 of -Chuck- TV series
Season 1 or 2 of -Psych- TV series
Season 4 of - The Office- TV series
Monty Python Flying Circus TV series on DVD
Best Buy Gift Card
Kid #3 (14 yrs old):
One year of X-Box live for X-Box 360
The Dark Knight DVD special edition
Hancock DVD special edition
Mercenaries 2 video game for X Box 360
007 Quantum of Solace video game for X Box 360
Planet Hulk - Marvel Graphic Novel
24 - Season 2 TV series
Best Buy gift card
Gamestop gift card
Mom:
Blender
Gift Card for clothes - Kohl's - Coldwater Creek - Sears - Walmart
Perfume - Sensational, Green Tea Lotus, or Red Door
Black or brown leather pocketbook
Dad:
Christmas tree
Cordless electric drill (Ryobi, Makita, Hitachi, etc)
25 ft pro measuring tape
After shave - Brut
I have serious misgivings about giving anything to this family. I asked about them and got a bit of backstory, namely that the parents used to own and operate a once lucrative CD store, which they recently had to close because it was losing money. The father could only find a job in maintenance (despite the myriad retail management jobs I see posted each week in the employment section) and recently became ill; the mother (who used to help run the business) doesn't work. They've since foreclosed on their house and are living in an apartment, and the parents are getting ready to file for bankruptcy.
So, yeah, things suck right now for them. But it still doesn't make me want to run out and buy something off their list. I'm not spending $50 on kids I know this Christmas, let alone kids I don't know. (Full disclosure: I've spent $44 on The Boy's Christmas presents. That includes his gift from Santa, too.)
The other family's list is very basic: winter clothes for the 3 kids (ages 6 months to 4 years), diapers & formula for the baby, puzzles, board games, basic toys, books, clothes for the mom. It's the kind of list you expect to receive from a family in need. It's not a list that you look at and think, "How is this a family in need?" Half of my coworkers have remarked they don't even have an XBox, let alone need games for it.
I know families who are far needier, families with medical bills that are only manageable because they're fortunate enough to have insurance. I have friends raising kids on single incomes, friends who have foreclosed on their homes and filed for bankruptcy, friends who have to decide which bills to pay and which to let slide, friends who are struggling each month to keep roofs over their heads and food in their bellies. And I have Vox neighbors who are barely making ends meet, neighbors whose words make me want to cry as I look at the wealth surrounding me and offer up prayers of thanks for all that I do have.
These are the people I want to help, people who don't own much but still feel so blessed for what they have, people who aren't wrapped up in the materialism of the season but recognize the gifts they've already been given. But the amazing thing is that the people I want to help are the ones who are too humble to ask for anything - because they, too, know of people far needier than they.
So, I'm not getting anything for the above family this Christmas (I've already purchased Chutes and Ladders for the other family). I will leave their wish list to more sympathetic people in the building and focus my efforts, instead, on surprising the people I know with unexpected niceties. And if that makes me a Scrooge, so be it.
Bah! Humbug!
]]>I also spent a lot of money, but I got a good chunk of my Christmas shopping done - including my husband's gifts for his bosses! Hooray! Now I have a lot of wrapping to do, but that's the easy part of Christmas. Shopping sucks.
I was super psyched, though, because I found the perfect gift for one of our friends for whom, I think, it is near-impossible to shop. But I chanced upon it, immediately called his wife for approval, then purchased it - and even used a coupon for it! Hee hee! I love being frugal when I can. It makes the dollar stretch so much futher. And then I can get so much more!
So now I really only have one person left on my list who has nothing from me (not including family, of course). I have some thoughts, but I need to give it more consideration. And I only have $87 of my allotted budget left. I need to get really creative about this!
The weekend started out with a trip to the Saturn dealership to get my car serviced. There isn't anything wrong with it, mind you; I just like going to the dealership and having them check everything out as long as the car is under warranty. I had my fuel injector thingy flushed and my tires balanced and realigned on top of the oil change and fluid top-off, but it was good to have that done. Besides, I haven't been there since June, and my Saturn e-mail said that I only had 33% of my oil life left.
After the dealership, I stopped at Costco ($1.98 for gas!) to pick up some of The Boy's bath soap and a couple of other things. Then it was on to Target (office gifts in the front bins for $1 each!), where I found some long-sleeved tops for myself (all ridiculously on sale) and long-sleeved onesies for layering The Boy this winter (45 degrees this morning! Yikes!). I also picked up some much-needed hand soap, some of which was Method's toasted hazelnut holiday scent. I highly recommend it. My next visit was to Bed Bath & Beyond before I made a final stop at Old Navy to use a gift card that had been burning a hole in my wallet. I tried so hard to use it all and fell $4.13 short, but the cashier was nice enough to let me have the change rather than keeping it on the card. Because, really, when can you ever find something for $4 at Old Navy?
As I said, I spent a lot of money.
That evening we went to our friends' house to celebrate a few birthdays. The Boy loves playing drums on Rock Band 2. Our friend Doug set up the drums on Freestyle Mode and let The Boy go to town on them. It was so much fun to watch! He held sticks in both hands and was hitting all the drum heads... I may have a future Keith Moon on my hands! Perhaps I should think about sound-proofing a room.
The next morning, we went to IKEA to pick up a few things. I (finally) got my chandelier and shades for the dining room, and because I needed to spend at least $100 to get a "free" $20 gift card (and it was something Chris needs), we picked up some bookshelf extenders, too. Now I have $23 IKEA dollars to put towards a mirror for the dining room. Woo hoo!
Of course, the trip to IKEA completely threw The Boy off schedule, which, as we all know, is a big no-no. He boycotted his nap and had a major meltdown around 5, so Chris and I whisked him into the bathtub, cleaned him, put him in his pajamas, gave him a yummy dinner of bananas and bread (he ate a lot of chicken for his afternoon snack), then brushed (and flossed) his teeth and put him to bed. And then he didn't wake up for 11 whole hours!
So, yeah, it was a really busy weekend. But I got a lot done (including three loads of laundry), and The Boy woke up in an awesome mood this morning. Who can argue with that?
]]>I went Christmas shopping at lunch today with my friend and coworker, and we patroned a store that I normally don't frequent: KMart. It was interesting... See, in the world of Big Box stores, KMart is still positioned behind Target and WalMart. (Target is also positioned above WalMart.)
There also aren't very KMarts around, it seems. I remember a few years back when they declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, brought on an entirely new leadership board, then came back from Chapter 11 with enough capital to buy Sears. Anyway, it would appear that they didn't bother reopening a number of the locations it had previously closed. As someone who works periodically with closing venues, it doesn't surprise me. After all, if sales didn't warrant having it open before the reorganization, why in the world would it make sense to reopen them now?
So, I ventured to KMart at lunch and was quite surprised at what I saw. There are some really nice things there, and almost all of it was discounted by at least 40%! I got a great frame and some candles for gifts, and I found some clothes for the wee one, and it was all very reasonably priced! Now, I'm not saying that I'm going back there to shop more frequently; what I would spend on gas to get there doesn't justify the savings I would receive. But to tag along, it wasn't a bad trip.
After returning to the office (and pushing out the last few things that needed to be done today), I sat down and made my Christmas list. I should have done this earlier, but at least I'm doing it now.
The Christmas list is the one kind of list I really don't enjoy making. I fully understand why it's necessary, but it doesn't mean I'm a fan of making it. I always feel like I need to be equitable to everyone on the list, even though I know that my friendship runs a bit deeper with some people than with others. And then there's the awkward question of how to handle those you don't know all that well. It's just a nuisance.
I'm pleased to say, though, that I have managed to complete shopping for one family on my list and am halfway through with two other families. (There are seven families on my list, not including my sister and in-laws. And I am only at a complete loss for two of them.) It's slowly coming together. I have some gifts for The Boy's teachers at school, but I'm still trying to come up with my plan for my coworkers (there are 16 of them).
If I can actually get the bulk of this done before December, it will be a small miracle.
In the meantime, I still need to figure out what I'm going to do about Christmas cards...
]]>I'm a regifter. I admit it. I think it's very difficult to not regift, only because I receive a lot of very nice gifts (usually from people who don't know me well) that aren't necessarily my taste and that I know someone else would like to have. And such is the way of the regift.
I think regifting gets a bad rap because of those who don't do it well. For example, the paper mache snowman figurine given to me this year by a coworker is not going to be regifted. In fact, it probably won't even make it inside the house. Likewise for the plaster snowman family that I received a few years ago from a coworker at a different job. I can't imagine anyone out there really would want it, unless they happen to be avid snowman figure collectors (of which I know of none). So, maybe it's an Ebay item, instead. For a penny.
No, the art of the regift is about passing along a nice (this is the critical piece) gift to someone who would enjoy it at least as much - but hopefully more - than you would. Even better is if said gift is actually something you know someone else has expressed an interest in having. For example, a few years ago, I received a Best Buy gift card as a thank you for a job well done. It was a very nice gift, and for a decent amount, too (more than $50). But I have little need to go to Best Buy, and I don't often go there when I need something they sell, anyway... so it got regifted. And the recipient was pleased as punch. That's how to properly regift.
So, to recap:
DON'T regift tchotchki items unless the recipient actually collects tchotchki. It's painfully obvious that it's a regift, so save yourself the embarrassment of listening to the polite (but strained) thank yous and put it up on Ebay instead. Or, better yet, submit it for a White Elephant present.
DON'T forget to take out any packaging, cards, notes, or any other items that blatantly call you out as a regifter. My husband's old roommates received a very nice bar set for their wedding, only to find a card from the recipient's Great Uncle So-and-So in the packaging. Oops.
DON'T regift to someone in the same circle as the giver - and especially not to someone who was there when you initially opened the present that you now plan to regift. I like to break up my associates into groups: I've got Family (F), Close Friends from Home (CFH), Current Co-Workers (CCW), and Close Friends in Florida (CFF). Now, because F is in close proximity to CFH, I won't regift between those groups. But I can regift something from F to CFF, or from CFH to CCW, or even from CFF to CCW. But regifting within any one group is a definite no-no.
DO include something new with your regift. Even if you're already regifting a very nice, very expensive something, it wouldn't hurt to include an additional touch. I think I paired the Best Buy gift card in my above example with a video game. The art of the regift is about being frugal and thus able to give more, not about being cheap.
DO carefully pair the intended recipient with the item you wish to regift. Someone who is just learning to knit, for example, would be the perfect recipient for a book on knitting that you received from someone who didn't realize that you're an expert knitter. (I'm not a knitter; this is truly an example. And though I've scrapbooked for ages, I would be hard-pressed to part with any of my idea books.)
DO take good care of the items you plan to eventually regift. My mother was an expert at this. She would carefully unwrap something, dutifully write the thank you card, then take the gift and store it in our hallway closet (where she kept all the last-minute presents for surprise visitors). We always had back-up presents stashed, all boxed and in pristine condition, and no one ever knew they were regifts. Or, at least, no one ever let on that they knew. I remember one Christmas when some people came over to the house unexepectedly, and Mom brought out all these presents for everyone - wrapped and all - as though she had known all along that they were coming. That was the year I gained a whole new appreciation for the Post-It note.
By the way, if you're wondering if you've ever received a regift from me, you probably have. I'm an equal opportunity regifter.
But I also make it a point to not regift crap.
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