It's the most wonderful time of the year
Christmas decorations are appearing in stores! I know most people find it annoying how early in the year the shops start stocking Christmas stuff, but it is the time I feel most Christmassy. I always peak too soon. I love Christmas in September/October and wish I could put up the tree and that the TV channels would start showing the Christmas movies. By mid December I am just kind of over it all. I can't be stuffed decorating, I realise I have some last minute shopping to do and don't want to fight the crowds, and it dawns on me that I will soon be seeing my extended family again (it's not that they are bad people, I just resent having to act like we are family when we see them once a year. I see my dentist as often as I see my cousins.)
Maybe this year will be different. I have my own house now which means I can get a real tree (no more crappy fake ones). I can start my own traditions, like my Ugly Ornament Scavenger Hunt.
I started it 2 years ago, but for some reason I can't find my first winner, so maybe I should call this the second annual Ugly Ornament Scavenger Hunt (or Ugly Ornament 2: Electric Fugaloo). Last year's most ugly is still at my parents' house. I'll pick it up next visit and post a picture. It truly is a site to behold.
It kind of speaks for itself, but with a few provisions:
I didn't manage to pick up my winning ugly today ( I usually prefer to wait and survey my options before settling on the ugliest of the ugly). I did pick up some non-ugly stuff in anticipation of hosting my first ever Christmas. I am dealing with some job uncertainty (more on that later) so I think I will try to spread out the Christmas ornament shopping otherwise my tree will be very bare and my first Christmas here will be quite colourless.
Today I picked up: (my camera has decided to crap out on me)
Maybe this year will be different. I have my own house now which means I can get a real tree (no more crappy fake ones). I can start my own traditions, like my Ugly Ornament Scavenger Hunt.
I started it 2 years ago, but for some reason I can't find my first winner, so maybe I should call this the second annual Ugly Ornament Scavenger Hunt (or Ugly Ornament 2: Electric Fugaloo). Last year's most ugly is still at my parents' house. I'll pick it up next visit and post a picture. It truly is a site to behold.
It kind of speaks for itself, but with a few provisions:
- It must be unknowingly ugly (someone somewhere must have thought it was a good idea)
- It can't just be a standard ornament in non-traditional colours (today I saw an all-black tree: black plastic fir, black tinsel, all black baubles. Ugly by my taste, but not ugly enough for the sake of this Ugly Hunt).
- It must be tangibly Christmassy (ie. Not just any old thing with a loop of ribbon around it, like 80% of the stuff I saw today. Little high heel ornaments, little Dora the Explorer ornaments (at least stick a santa hat on her head or shove a candy cane in her hand!), etc). Unfortunately that rules out something awesomely awful I saw today: a little Hawaiian shirt ornament. Not even Christmas colours: orange and green Hawaiian shirt to hang on your tree.
I didn't manage to pick up my winning ugly today ( I usually prefer to wait and survey my options before settling on the ugliest of the ugly). I did pick up some non-ugly stuff in anticipation of hosting my first ever Christmas. I am dealing with some job uncertainty (more on that later) so I think I will try to spread out the Christmas ornament shopping otherwise my tree will be very bare and my first Christmas here will be quite colourless.
Today I picked up: (my camera has decided to crap out on me)
- A novelty jumbo santa pen. It's quite goofy looking but I find comically oversized things so...comical. I look forward to nonchalantly whipping it out to write a note at school and my students will be all "um...what's with the pen?" Tee hee.
- Little 'holly' thingies. I'm not entirely sure what their purpose is. They are little plastic sprigs of holly on little stick things. I don't really know what was going through my head when I got them other than "hey that's my name! And they're only $2!" I think I had vague ideas about how my friend went to Europe and took little Aussie flag tooth picks and stuck them in things to 'claim' them for Australia, except I could claim things for me. ALL FOR ME.
- A '12 Days of Christmas' bauble set. I think they are just plastic rather than glass. (The box doesn't say, although it does have "For decoration only" on the bottom. No shit, Sherlock. What else would I use them for? Oversized anal beads?) Each bauble has a little illustration of one of the lines of 12 days of Christmas. I like the idea of having some kind of base set of decorations. I could have these for years and I'll always be able to say I had them for my first independent Christmas, and maybe the 'Pipers piping' one might get lost somewhere along the way and Holly Jr might break the 'Geese a-laying' on her second Christmas and it will all become part of the family mythology.