Almost The Holidays

I'm looking forward to the holidays. I have always loved Christmas, even though we do not celebrate it in a religious way. It's the spirit of the season, the flash and the glamour that I love. This Christmas is going to be very different from Christmas Past. Everyone is working or in school almost right up to the Christmas weekend so there's less time for the build-up.

Boyo spends Christmas day with me and then heads back to his dad's for Christmas evening and Boxing Day, which is his father's birthday. So this year Baby Girl and I are jumping on a plane and heading to Arizona for five days of sun and pampering. (You'll see some best-of blog repeats during that week.)

It's been a long and very busy year for both of us. Having five days to just be together laughing and loving the sun seems like an enormous gift. Since she's gone off to university, I find any time I get to spend with Alex to be a huge present. And I cherish every minute. So there won't be a ton of stuff under the tree this year; we're going with experiences. (Boyo gets a trip in March when he's on school-break.)

Boyo did ask for an iphone for Christmas. Actually, he wanted one way back at the beginning of summer and was perfectly happy to pay for it himself. My problem with Malcolm is that he never wants anything… very low needs/wants kid… so I'm loathed to let a gift option pass me by. I talked him out of buying it and offered it to him as his Christmas/Birthday present. I wanted him to defer the gratification and experience the anticipation for a while before scratching the itch. He acquiesced.

I find that as I grow older I want less and less. Time with family and friends is far more important to me that yet one more whatever. I lead a simple life, but there's not too much that I want that I don't already have. New acquisitions tend to be books, tea, and recreational supplies like canvases and yarn… not really "big ticket" items.

Last year Alex went into a kitchen store and asked them to produce something "new" that I might not have. After several "no thanks, she's got that," she was offered an ebelskiver pan. It makes round pancakes into which you can put fillings. I've become a bit of an ebelskiver aficionado, filling with savoury and sweet and having a blast with my new toy. So it was a thing that led to wonderful experiences feeding people! That's my kind of gift.

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