*none of these pics are my own.

how many of you are already thinking of christmas?

i am, because with unemployment running out, money is going to be tight.  and i didnt save anything this year.  and there are a thousand nephews that need stuff (apparently, my whole family makes boys).  a sister who needs stuff just so she knows you thought of her.  a sister who is so poor she makes me look rich, so she needs stuff.  and an extra kid whose dad died this year, who needs stuff.  by stuff, i mean a new pair of shoes.  or some new socks and underwear.  or maybe a pair of jeans or a warm new flannel.  basic stuff.

however, those are probably not what i will get them - because even just new socks and unders can add up, you know, when you are buying them for 20 people. the one good thing, is i will not go to a mall.  i am proud to say, that i realized a few years ago that i dont do malls at christmas.  i hardly ever do malls, because i dont have money and i dont like shopping.  but it was only when i DID go to a mall at christmas time, that it struck me, "hey, i dont usually go through this hell."  and i was relieved.  so what will i get these people who need?  i dont know.  thats why i am already thinking about it.  trying to figure that out.  i thought about making everyone flannel lounge-y pants, in a fabric chosen just for them.  but fabric has become so expensive, that i cant afford that.  so.

and i promised the kid a playstation 3 with a video game i dont believe he should be allowed to have, if he doesnt get in trouble at school this year.  i had to make the stakes really high.  and he is still getting in trouble. but much much less.  but more importantly, i know he is really really trying to not get in trouble.  really trying.  and i know that school sucks for him in a way i cant imagine having to endure.  so as of now, i am getting it for him.  i am steeling myself for that to truly be ALL he gets.  one present.  hard to prepare myself psychologically, but he insists he couldn't care less, and one is plenty, and he doesn't know why i am not okay with giving him only one.  so.

and two weeks after christmas, it is his 13th birthday.

            this says its the coolest birthday cake, and it is.  its cupcakes!

***

and in between is my birthday and new years.

and look, this says its the coolest too, and it also is!  an angel and holly, just like me!

***

and i do like to throw a christmas pot luck brunch.  i cant afford to throw the whole thing, so i make it a pot luck.  and i make it a brunch, so people still have the bulk of the day to do as they wish.  and i dont make it a dinner because dinner costs more.  and people drink at dinner.  so a pot luck brunch it is.

and i do, truly, make the prettiest tree in my county.  i daresay, quite damned possibly in new york state.  you have to start with c-7s, even if, like me, you have to buy them over a period of years.  then you have tinsel garland AND tinsel.  and your ornaments must be spaced throughout the tree in several layers.  not just on the outside.  and you will have a tree worth driving past, just to admire as it sparkles and glows in your window.

getting the tree is a great joy and a great pain in the ass each year.  the great joy is going to the same tree farm forever, where the trees are all the same low price no matter what tree you get.  and you get to see the owner you love.  you love him because he is an old lefty curmudgeon who is also handsome and rides his bike everywhere.  whats not to love there?  and they used to sell wreaths and kissing balls for so cheap even a single mom like i was could afford them.  and now they dont make them anymore, except to give to their friends.  and last year i got a wreath.  so i was pretty honored.

one new problem with the tree farm is that since people started buying two and three trees for their houses (yes!  they do!), the tree farm can run out.  yes, stop selling trees.  so rather than get my tree one week before christmas, or at most ten days (cause remember, it has to last till epiphany, on january 6th), instead i am having to buy it two weeks ahead, which is really too early. 

not our farm, but looks like our farm, which abuts the woods.

and since we met keith, he always separates from us to look on his own, and i yell across the field, "well, let us know if you find anything!"  because i am aggravated because of course the whole point is to get the tree together.  and every year, he tries to make me get an inferior tree.  it is too tall or too skinny or too stabby, instead of the perfect sized, just fat enough, not stabby tree that i choose.  now, why can't he pick the tree, you ask?  because i do.  because i am the one who gets all tingly and jingly over the tree.  who thrills to it.  now, if he wants to get jingly and jangly and thrill to it?  then he can pick it.  until then, i got dibs.

i will get out my correlle christmas service for 20.  yes, i know there are only three of us in this house.  i got it for 20 dollars at salvation army. no, i dont need service for 20, but i sure wish i did.  my mom never had 20.  she never had less than 25, what with the dozen kids, boyfriends and girlfriends, her, the hubby, the ex, the extras.  it was so noisy it could make you sick to your stomach.  i found it to be crude and unseemly and i couldnt wait to get out of there.  and now i ache for it.  if only we knew when we are in the thick of things, huh?

and this year, also for twenty dollars, i got at a yard sale:  jesus, mary, joseph, a wise man, a sheep, a cow, a donkey, and a camel!  the big light-up kind for the yard!  so, man oh man is that gonna be sweet!  and we will add to that, the c-9s i got at a thrift store (thrift stores ROCK for christmas goodies), and the fake pine garland my sister handed down to me, and oh it is just gonna be gorgeous.

 

we will put up our fancy for us christmas village, built over the years from after christmas sales and thrift stores and the occasional full price piece (15 dollars, you know. not 50).  and i will make a few cookies to go in my fancy fitz and floyd christmas cookie jar, which i got for a dollar at the thrift store.

and on january 6th, i will dread putting stuff away, and will insist that next year i will make it smaller.  and that i am going to get rid of some of my christmas stuff.  but then i wont.  and i will argue with keith to leave the outside lights up all year, because i love them so much.  he will win, eventually.  but i will get an extra month or so out of it.

what are your plans?