Handbags

[Leeny]

@stevieb 

Thank you, I hope you and your mom have a nice day and can enjoy your time together. I am so beat right now from all the cooking and prep work. Tomorrow I am sleeping in, hopefully. We were going to stay over night at our DD's tomorrow night, but it's just too much hauling and toting. We will go over to her house after church and eat some goodies and stay for awhile. Then go back on Christmas morning to open gifts and eat again.lol. Then do KP duty. zzzzzzzzzzzz

[Leeny]

@skyblue @shoesnbags 

I don't know of anyone who has been tested and it tested false. Sorry to say, but the tests that they have had are the ones you have to wait for the results. Plus this darn covid is running rampant in our area and I for one take all the precautions I can. Mr.L hardly goes out at all. I just hope we can all stay healthy and not have to make any visits to the hospital because they are pretty packed here.

[Jamstan]

I admit to being a total grinch. I have never been a big fan of Christmas but now I really am not a big fan and would skip it all together if not for my young nieces and nephew. They are the only ones I buy for now. I am the polar opposite of my mother...who goes all out, 2 trees and every inch...and I mean every! of the house decorated. I don't want any part of it...especially the music. My ideal Christmas would be on a beach somewhere, quiet, calm and relaxing with a book and beverage in hand. And not a snowflake or Christmas tree in sight!

Been thinking about what made me so anti-this time of year and I think my former job/boss has at least something to do with it. Year after year, she forced us into doing cookie exchanges, secret Santa, parties, decorating...often during normal work hours. And if we even voiced the slightest bit of lack of interest, oh boy, did she take it out on us. It was a really unpleasant thing.

Best wishes to all on this thread!!

[stevieb]

@Jamstan  We all have our thoughts about this major holiday. There is no 'one size fits all' and I understand your point of view completely.

For most of my life I adored the season, got very into it and worked hard to make my home and the holiday special. Somewhere along the line I began to realize that with the exception of the childhood years and a few exceptional years as an adult, it had almost always been a bittersweet and somewhat anticlimactic holiday for me. The work became drudgery and as increasing numbers of friends and family moved on or died out, it's become very much a shell.

Although I am not a terribly religions person, though I observe in my own way, I do get the reason for the season. Still, for many of us, Christmas has been more secular than religious and at some level, as we age, it tends to fall flat for some of us.

As I reach a stage in life where pulling it together is a very real challenge I increasingly can't meet, I guess I need to start to look at it differently.

These past two years have taken so much of the joy of an already stressful season away for many of us and the 'there's always next year' mantra is beginning to fall on deaf ears.

My ideal Christmas, unlike yours, would involve the snow, the music and, well, Christmas... but it would come ready-made in a New England cottage (or somewhere else seasonal) and I wouldn't have to do a thing to make it happen! I guess we're both more or less in 'making the best of it' mode...  

Oh, and I do get your disgust with those endless and tiresome forced joviality 'Secret Santa' exchanges, particularly the ones where everyone is allowed to 'take' the gift they like best from one another... Had I been forced to endure one more of those or any other mandatory work related 'party', I don't think I could have stood it...  

[teganslaw]

My workplace had "Secret Santas" and signing up was optional. I never went for it, just wasn't interested. We also had a donation list to help families in need. The idea is good, but often the items requested were expensive toys and things I couldn't afford for myself. It kind of turned me off on the whole program. 

I donate money to my local Animal Care and Control. I adopted my cat from there, and they do wonderful work throughout the community.

[stevieb]

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@teganslaw wrote:

My workplace had "Secret Santas" and signing up was optional. I never went for it, just wasn't interested. We also had a donation list to help families in need. The idea is good, but often the items requested were expensive toys and things I couldn't afford for myself. It kind of turned me off on the whole program. 

I donate money to my local Animal Care and Control. I adopted my cat from there, and they do wonderful work throughout the community.

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Good for you @teganslaw. Once I could opt out of the workplace 'festivities', I did so as well and no, I never could get into charities sort of trying to dictate what one should give. Like you, pretty much my only charities at this point for the small donations I'm able to give are a few animal charities.

[Bird mama]

Merry Christmas Bag-ettes

[stevieb]

Adorable @Bird mama ... 

[shoesnbags]

Oh @Bird mama , that is just perfect!

[Boehm Collector]