It's beginning to look a lot like...
...like I'm not ready for Christmas. Ack.
Two years ago, after a hellish day at malls and assorted superstores, I resolved never to do all my shopping on Christmas Eve again. Last year, however, I not only did most of my shopping on Christmas Eve, I did some of it so late that the items I bought were already at the post-Christmas markdown price.
So this year I've tried to do my shopping sooner rather than later; I've done a lot of online shopping on various Web sites, and I've just about finished with my actual purchases, but I'm having to pay for the super-duper fast shipping options, and some things I found in catalogs are already out of stock at the stores or Web sites. Somehow Christmas got to be less than ten days away; when the heck did that happen? (As I've previously mentioned, the late fall/early winter weather has been way too warm to inspire Christmas-y thoughts; "60° and sunny" doesn't scream "Hurry up and get your shopping done!")
And, oh yeah, Christmas cards. Which we've told each other we have to do soon for the past month or so. (The first card sent to us arrived on December 2nd; yeah, way to make the rest of us feel like slackers...)
And, oh yeah, Christmas decorating. We still haven't put our Halloween decorations away. Not that we have a lot of decorations for any holiday, but taking the two-foot-tall fiber-optic tree out of the box and putting some lights in the window would at least prevent our neighbors from thinking we're Communists...
(South Philly takes Christmas decorating very seriously; there are animatronic Santas and Mrs. Clauses and angels and snowmen and reindeer, and stationary versions of all of the above, and fake snow, and lights and tinsel and greenery, in almost every window on every street.)
Well, I've used up half my lunch hour; time for some more online shopping. Dash away, dash away, dash away all...
Two years ago, after a hellish day at malls and assorted superstores, I resolved never to do all my shopping on Christmas Eve again. Last year, however, I not only did most of my shopping on Christmas Eve, I did some of it so late that the items I bought were already at the post-Christmas markdown price.
So this year I've tried to do my shopping sooner rather than later; I've done a lot of online shopping on various Web sites, and I've just about finished with my actual purchases, but I'm having to pay for the super-duper fast shipping options, and some things I found in catalogs are already out of stock at the stores or Web sites. Somehow Christmas got to be less than ten days away; when the heck did that happen? (As I've previously mentioned, the late fall/early winter weather has been way too warm to inspire Christmas-y thoughts; "60° and sunny" doesn't scream "Hurry up and get your shopping done!")
And, oh yeah, Christmas cards. Which we've told each other we have to do soon for the past month or so. (The first card sent to us arrived on December 2nd; yeah, way to make the rest of us feel like slackers...)
And, oh yeah, Christmas decorating. We still haven't put our Halloween decorations away. Not that we have a lot of decorations for any holiday, but taking the two-foot-tall fiber-optic tree out of the box and putting some lights in the window would at least prevent our neighbors from thinking we're Communists...
(South Philly takes Christmas decorating very seriously; there are animatronic Santas and Mrs. Clauses and angels and snowmen and reindeer, and stationary versions of all of the above, and fake snow, and lights and tinsel and greenery, in almost every window on every street.)
Well, I've used up half my lunch hour; time for some more online shopping. Dash away, dash away, dash away all...