There's only a few days left before Christmas, and I have done my best to help our ailing economy this year. In a feat never before seen, I finished pretty much all of my Christmas shopping last weekend. There were a few things that I picked up in Napa this past weekend that need to go in the mail soon, but I'm not worried about them. I am very impressed with myself.
This year I actually planned a schedule of when I would be finished. I had a weekend of shopping planned, then a weekend of baking, then a weekend in Napa, then Christmas. The baking weekend wasn't as major as I had hoped, and we only made cookies for friends and work colleagues this year. The shopping weekend was brutal. I spent all day Saturday out, and by the end I was exhausted. Gary did not go with me, so I was able to get some stuff for him, too (and he took me out to dinner afterwards, then helped get something for my mom that I hadn't found anywhere else, and was too tired to do on my own!)
One of my sisters told me she did most (maybe all?) of her shopping online. I think I did more online shopping in past years, when I got Gary things like a GameCube. This year I thought it would be easier to go to stores (although in retrospect, going in a single day was perhaps not so clever.) Last year I had been laid off, with no firm job prospects yet, so my gifts were pretty minimal.
The problem with having finished all my shopping early is that I still feel compelled to go out and buy stuff. Everyone else at work is talking about shopping, and I feel like maybe I haven't spent enough money or something. I know my time would be better spent making cookies or banana bread, but the pressure is there. So far I have mostly resisted. Luckily I will not have time this week to go into any store but the grocery, and maybe CostPlus for some chocolate.
Posted by Jen at December 22, 2003 06:09 AM