Great expectations!
Every holiday season, I have such good intentions.
Organizational intentions.
There will be lists (names in alphabetical order) and beside the names the gifts that have been purchased.
Each person’s stash will each be separated and stacked into neat piles
I will write down the price I paid for each gift so each person gets equal amounts. I will keep to a budget. (I almost choked on that one!)
I will have all the purchasing done before December even begins.
I shall have the house cleaned pre-decorating. The post-Hallowe’en dust will be removed in advance of the Christmas dirt.
All presents will be in the shape of a square for easy wrapping.
Now, here we are a few days out.
Ha! Fake news! Liar!
The truth is none of that has happened.
There were lists, sort of. They were more like scribbled pieces of paper scrunched up in my purse never to be actually read.
I wrote no prices down. There was no budget. If the debit card still worked, I kept buying. (I am currently checking if I can pay my Visa with my MasterCard.)
The purchasing is never done. Unless I wear blinders while shopping, there is always something jumping into my shopping cart.
A friend and I recently realized we could shop anywhere — a truck stop along the 401 and even at a sandwich shop that has subs, but also merchandise. This gives us both a sense of pride and shame.
The house was not pre-cleaned. I just covered up the fall dust with winter table runners and sparkly stuff. Sprinkle some fake snow for effect.
Nice uniform square gifts? Yeah, right! Everything I bought was either oversize, pointy or triangular.
Nothing was easy to wrap.
Don’t get me started on wrapping.
I have run out of paper three times. Please, do not tell Greta Thunberg I still use paper.
How many times do I lose the tape? Or the edge of the tape thereby ruining my manicure? It must be at least 22 times in each wrapping session.
Pens? Who knows where they ended up. I’ll find them in the spring, maybe.
How does a dining room table turns into the Bermuda Triangle.
I start out measuring the paper and cutting neatly along the cutting lines and doing proper folds, but then it rips and I lose the tape (again) and I have too much paper at one end so the folding is all lopsided.
After losing the scissors and breaking a sweat, I end up shoving stuff in a bag with some crumpled tissue and calling it a day.
Just tell people it got crushed in the car on the way! (if you have a cat or dog, you can say they sat on it — that will seem charming rather than lazy)
By the way, this excuse can also work for your appearance.
“Sorry, I appear rumpled, I looked great when I got onto the car, but that long drive took a toll. Also, my pet sat on my outfit.”
Expectations. No good can come from high expectations.
I find lowering one’s standards can be helpful.
Accept there is no such thing as perfection.
Remember, at this time of the year, everything under the tree looks beautiful in the glow of the Christmas lights.
A little wrinkled, lopsided and with sharp edges, but still beautiful and desired.
Perfectly imperfect.
Same goes for those around the tree!
