Home. Made.
Once the weather starts getting nipply, my thoughts turn to Christmas. Okay, don’t start poking your eyes out with your morning grapefruit spoons. I KNOW it’s more than 3 months away. I’m just a planner, that’s all…I plan…I scheme…I scour sales and unexpected bargains. I love Christmas, it’s the only time of the year I actually don’t entirely loathe shopping.
But lately? The last couple years? Not so fulfilling. I want a memorable Christmas, a less-cluttered Christmas. I want a sparkly-sugar-cookie-Christmas. These are the thoughts swirling around my head this morning in gaily colored red-and-green shiny ribbons:
1) I want a Home Made Christmas with the extended families, but not sure if they’ll go for it. Long-time readers will remember that the Sergei-Mona household celebrates 5 Christmases (one with our own family of 4, one with my parents, and one with each of Sergei’s 3 parents/steps families). After a while, it’s like giving your niece $20 for her birthday and having her mother send your child $20 for her birthday…it’s tit for tat…it’s 2-2=0. Y’know what I want? I want someone to knit me a scarf. I want baubles purchased at Big Art Fair. I want homemade wine. I want love in a bottle, a bag, a small wooden box made by hand. OR…I want a gift certificate to a craft store, so I can make homemade baubles and bags and boxes for other people.
2) The kids have everything they want. They don't need a giant-sized teddy bear. They don't need a princess castle. They don't need a pinball machine in their room or a basketball hoop over their closet door. They have “stuff”. Enough “stuff”. I need to communicate with the inlaws and outlaws to Cut It Down. Give the kids small meaningful things. Give them your time. They'd be thrilled with a $10 gift card to the mall. They'd love to help you make cookies. Take them to a movie at the theatre, with popcorn and Milk Duds and a slushy. Tell 'em you love 'em. That's a great gift.
3) Also? I want the kids to appreciate what they have, what they get. My goal is to have little innocent “talks in passing” with them over the next few months, stressing selflessness, stressing community service, de-emphasizing the need for what the neighbor has. It's not that there won't be gifts under tree this year...but they don't need a floor full of meaningless gifts. Small is better. Small is good. Small means more.
4) What to get Sergei? I am at a total loss.
posted by Mona Buonanotte @ 11:48 AM
10 comments
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10 Comments:
Steak and a blowjob?
That's what the almost husband always wants :)
digits: That's what every man wants! Great idea!
P.S. This is Ariel from way on back :) Don't know if you remember me :)
Give Sergei a tattoo--either on you or on him.
Christmas??? 8fingers in ears* La la la la I CAN'T hear you.
(As for Orange's idea, it's an excellent one. I got a tattoo on my body one year for my husband. It was well received. :) )
Sergie? Hmmm.
Okay, I have it. Slather your naked body in either baby oil or petroleum jelly. Roll and press body parts onto high quality black paper. Clean up, then sprinkle powdered graphite over the surface of the paper. The graphite sticks to the oily imprint from your body, than mat and frame!
My husband and I agreed years ago not to buy each other Christmas presents. Instead, we both take a day off about a week before Christmas and spend the whole day at home WITHOUT THE KIDS. (When the kids were little, we'd send them over to my mother's, later we'd pick a school day, and more recently, we just politely tell the older kids they have to leave unless they want to witness their parents having sex in the living room in front of the fire.)
Anyhow, the rule is the day is totally relaxed -- no work, no planning for Christmas, no cleaning. We build a fire. We get out the massage table, the massage oil, the silky red lingerie. We crank up the heat. It's so nice to take some time out of the hectic busyness of the season and spend it together. It's nice to have leisurely daytime sex with no kids in the next room ....
Much better than something that can be gift-wrapped.
I usually do a hand-made item for everyone on the Christmas list. And for some that I don't know well and most of the kids, that's it--The PS and I have gone thru several varieties of hell in the past nearly 2 years, so the parents understand, and the kids don't care. Last year it was edgy-cool slippers in a silk blend yarn combined with eyelash yarn--they looked seriously cool and it was plain it took me a whole night to knit each one (hee, it actually took me a night to knit each pair--very simple pattern). For our own kids, one present--something they REALLY wanted, not a pile of crap that they'll be over in a week since they're teens and that's how teens are. And something small for each other.
And that was it. It did go over great--our families were aware of the circumstances so no one so much as dropped a catty comment behind a back over it. And I think it was the most fun I had--almost no mall exposure (and you know how much I got into that) plus doing things I love to do for the folks I love to do them for.
Try suggesting it--it might go over better than you think.
digits: OMG, it IS you! I've been thinking about you...you must have read my mind!
orange: Well, I AM due a tattoo...and I have a lot of skin real estate on my backside....
meno: I know...lalalala... AT least we don't have to stand in interminably long lines to see the HoHoHo guy anymore....
patches: I knew you'd give me something artistic to do! And I take it you've done this?
jo(e): Your husband is one lucky guy! I love this idea, but I would probably also have to banish the cat from the house...the nosy thing.
pand0ra: I love knitted things! Last year I made a scarf for one of the MILs using scary-big needles, so it took me only one day to make, and turned out so well. Yup...I think I'll suggest it!
You so have the right idea here! There is way too much stuff goin' on for kids and the carbon footprint doubles! Time spent with kids/people is the best by far.
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