Getting ready for "The Season"

Well, I'm almost there.

Finished shopping, I mean.

You know, for Christmas.

Years ago, my sister and I used to meet for coffee every morning before we went to our respective workplaces.  And since the children had to go to school on November 11th but we didn't have to go to work, we would take the morning to pay respects and then we'd hit the stores in the afternoon.  And I would  invariably finish my Christmas shopping on that date (having started some weeks before).

Haven't managed to meet that target date in many years.  In fact, most of the past years I hadn't even thought about what I was buying for anyone before November 11th.

But this year, I'm on the ball.

As of yesterday, I am 93.33% finished my shopping.

The hold-out is only because John has to be involved with the selection of the last gift (and I will pick up one other at the same time).  This being deer hunting season, it's difficult to get John to do anything but hunt.  So it remains to be seen whether or not I'll finish by my target date.

Why do I like to be finished my shopping so early, you ask?

Because I really cannot abide the crowded hyped up shopping environment that is late November and all of December.  The less I'm in the stores through that period the better.  So I try to avoid them (other than for groceries of course).

Besides, I need my time to concentrate on getting my Christmas card list ready (which is really something that is an on-going production all year long).  It's nice, too, to be able to focus on producing our Christmas card without having to worry about shopping for gifts.

Yesterday we "think" we decided on the photo we'll use for this year's card.  I'll start working on that in the next day or two.  I'm also producing a personalized card for my step-son to send out, although in much lesser numbers than our print run.  I have to get that off my plate before I can turn my attention to doing our card.

It will be early December before I'll put up my Christmas village; that's a two-day job in itself.  Once that's done, I can sit back and wait for Santa to get here!

So, feliz navidad everyone!