Do I hear Christmas Bells? Day 24 Y2

from whatsaiththescripture.com

I was Christmas shopping today.  It gave me joy to start searching for things online that might serve as a gift that will bring a smile, a nod, a grin to a loved one in my life.  I find that, by slowly nibbling away at the edges of the Christmas giving process, it is happier for me, and certainly, less hectic.  I have tried three approaches.  

When my children were very little, I started shopping in July and aimed to be done by December first.  I used the days of December to wrap, decorate and be present with my excited young children.  The downside?  I forgot where I hid items and we found them well into the ensuing summers. 

When the three kids were in high school and middle school, I started shopping at Halloween, and aimed to be done by mid-December.  It was more hectic overall, but their lists were current and the bustle and excitement was thrilling.  I wrapped during the ten days preceding Christmas and recruited the help of my children to accomplish the task.

Last year was a first.  I didn’t really begin to shop until two weeks before Christmas.  I intend to avoid that approach for the rest of the Christmases that I am blessed to enjoy.  It was far to consumer-driven and well, shall I say it, greedy-feeling, for me.  I knew I had to fulfill certain expectations, of both my family’s and my own, and it was pressure.  Two days before Christmas, I found myself holed up in my office wrapping presents for hours. My children were home from college breaks, but they were eager to see friends and catch up on the lives they had left behind when they went off to school. Barely had I taped the last sheet of wrapping paper, and it was time to unwrap everything.  Not optimal from my point of view.

This year, my two oldest children worked very hard to save for a trip they have planned to take together.  The both suggested that, besides any stocking gifts that Santa deems to bring them, any and all contributions to their travel funds would be greatly appreciated.  That makes sense and certainly changes the equation of how I manage my Christmas kitty.  

This enables me to make very careful choices for each stocking, for my extended family and for my friends.  I am beside myself with excitement about a gift I found for one family.  I ordered it in advance and the store in Vineyard Haven called to advise me it is now in stock.  Hurray!   My Santa hat may go on at different times each year, but I admit that it can be jolly good fun wearing it! 

Westbrook Runs

Today was a day to which I dedicated much of my day to learning. I started learning how to create web-based marketing strategies and found that, somehow, I lost three hours. It was 9:45 when I first started out on the odyssey. When I lifted my head up from concentrating on my computer screen, I found the clock across the room said it was 12:48 pm. I pushed my computer glasses down my nose to better engage my distance vision. Still 12:48. Finally, I checked the computer screen. It was now 12:49 pm. I felt like I spent the morning discovering all the things I don’t know. Yet, even with the acute awareness of how much I have to learn, there was the familiar thrill of learning. I enjoyed trying to understand how the things I was absorbing might apply to my work as a writer. It is a profoundly different world technologically than when I published my first article in the Daily Hampshire Gazette in 1980.
I made lunch, threw in a load of laundry and emptied the dishwasher before returning to my laptop. There, I spent two hours cleaning house on my computer so I could be certain I was getting full speed out of it. Suddenly, it was time for the quick run to the post office for mail. Meeting Kevin, the postmaster, is part of my daily ritual. Today, he had two packages for me. I was telling him how the morning’s torrential rain had created wash-outs in my driveway. Part of my road was nearly under water. Just as I said that, a mind-blowing clap of thunder caused us both to jump, then to laugh. Just one boom, and that thundercloud passed over. Heading back uphill to my house, I was amazed how the quiet, lazy, winding brook that usually meanders along Westbrook Road had swelled to flood level and was racing wildly downstream. I stopped to shoot a few pictures before tucking my very wet feet back in the car and going home. As a measure of my small technological gain today, I am proud to have posted my very first You-Tube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXxaPU8QHTs
Perhaps, I should have oriented the camera horizontally when I was filming, but hey, I am still learning.
Day 24