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December 15th, 2003 - Monday Gifts In typical form for me, I'm somewhat shocked that it's only ten days away from Christmas. Of course, we haven't gotten a thing. Ack! Luckily I have a pretty good idea of what I'm getting for people. For Hayley, we're getting a toddler table that comes with a sixty-piece set of cups, saucers, "food" and so on. I can't find it online but it looks really cute. Also, since most of the food that came with her kitchen set was too small to let her play with yet, it will be nice to give her some more stuff to go with it. I'd also like to find her some flash cards for basic things since she's getting so good at recognizing pictures. I'm also a big fan of books and although she has a ton already, it would be good for her to have board books that she can't rip apart if she looks at them on her own. I can't say what I'm getting for my sister since she reads. I don't really know anyway. However, I never ever worry about her even though I need to get her both a Christmas gift and a birthday gift. She's extremely easy to shop for. My mother will either get a purse (my specialty!) or "Shrek" as per her list of gift suggestions. I'll see if anyone has gotten either one for her yet. I have no idea for my father really. He lists a lot of books but he usually gets several from other people. Maybe I'll see if I can find a nice sweatshirt for him. My grandmother has a better social life than I do what with all her dinners out with friends and her church card parties. I think I'll get her a nice pullover sweater - nice but not too dressy. Then she can wear it when she goes out. That's what I did last year and I think she really liked having something new to wear out. It's hard to shop for her - she's in her late 80s, she doesn't need or want anything too advanced (her cordless phone is really super high tech to her!) and she already has a lot of, well, stuff. I think a nice sweater is a good gift. I have no idea what to get for George's family but that's his problem. I pick out my family's gifts and he picks out his family's gifts. I bought all my own gifts for his one year and nearly had an aneurism from the stress. I usually am pretty good with gift purchasing but I drive myself crazy with holiday pressure. I much prefer to buy things for people on a whim instead. It's easier and more fun. I also have a huge (and I mean huge) box full of shoes, an electric frypan, some clothes, etc. that are all in excellent shape but that don't get used any more. I'm going to get the box to a charity in time for the holidays. At first I was going to call the Salvation Army because they have a truck that will come pick stuff up for you since George has been really busy lately and we haven't had a chance to take it ourselves. However, I changed my mind. The Salvation Army is an admirable place but they do still sell the stuff, albeit for a really low price. Other times throughout the year, that's okay but for Christmas I'd rather give it to a church organization that will give things to those who need them. I wish I could do more. One year I would love to serve breakfast at a shelter, but it's enough stress these days trying to get all the family obligations in as it is without squeezing that in as well. Maybe when Hayley is older we can do it together, even if it's on Christmas Eve for dinner. I don't want her to grow up thinking Christmas is all about getting fancy gifts. I want her to think about other people who aren't as lucky as she is.    There's not much else to write about today. It was just a regular day with nothing of great excitement to share. Maybe this is a good time to do what I did for Holidailies in 2001 - I'm going to ask you to send me some questions that I can answer. If you don't I'm going to bore you all to death. It did snow though. This is what Hayley and I saw when we got up this morning. That's our balcony out there.
And in the one exciting moment of the day, I learned firsthand why you can't leave a toddler alone near water. I was running Hayley's bath and she started reaching for one of her ducks while I stood there blowing my nose. She reached too far and fell in. Well, not completely, she planted her hands down and didn't fall in far enough to get her face in the water, but she scared herself (and me!) and she couldn't have gotten herself back out. Which is why I never HAVE left her alone with a tub full of water or whatnot. That's about it. G'night. << - Journal index - >>
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Reading: The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown.
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