Christmas Shopping.
I went today. And I will go tomorrow.
I hate it.
There is only so much that Amazon can do. Sometimes you just have to dive head first into the trenches and go to battle.
The thing about going today, December 19th, is that you become part of a club …
The Christmas Shopping Procrastination Club.
The women who are out there today are like me: They are the non-organizers, who fly by the seat of their pants, and are praying frantically that it all comes together in time.
We have our hair hidden under our winter hats, 6 different crinkled up lists that we keep referring too, and we are absolutely on a bee line into and out of every store that we visit.
We are serious. I did not see a lot of smiles today. And we have a tendency to reach for things at the same time as our comrades. It’s because we are just grabbing without paying attention to what is spatially around us.
And I love Christmas, I really do. I love to give, I love to bake, and I love to decorate. I love everything that it represents spiritually. If there weren’t so many distractions in my life I think I would shut everything down on December 1st and just immerse myself in a world of green and red wrapping paper, decorated sugar cookies and the fire crackling in the fireplace. I wouldn’t come out until January 1st.
Oh, why do I always wait until the last minute?
Those of us who are part of The Christmas Shopping Procrastination Club know that there is a trickle down affect that we must endure. The stress goes from gift buying, to baking, to wrapping. It’s like a snowball that starts rolling down a hill on December 18th, or 19th, or 20th and it doesn’t come to a rest until midnight on the 25th.
Oh my, when is this all going to get done? It just keeps playing over and over in my head. In fact, there is a double batch of buckeyes that need to be made and packaged before school tomorrow. Yikes!
At 12:54 this afternoon, with only an hour to spare before the kids arrived home from school, we converged.
I happened to come across 2 other women who were definitely members of my club. As I pulled my cart up in front of the chocolate chips there was a heavy sigh that escaped. We all looked up at each other at the same time, our eyes meeting. And then, with no explanation, a 1 minute spew of dialogue came (because that is all we had time for) about how ridiculous it is that we wait until the very last minute to shop. We agreed that we all knew that the Chex Cereal would be gone, only the expensive chocolate chips would be left, and the white melting chocolate would be obsolete! But yet we did this to ourselves every year!
It was funny, and the happen chance meeting was needed. Clearly we all had to blow off some steam as our anxiousness was getting the best of us while we bustled around furiously so close to Christmas to get all of this shopping done. I felt better after the interaction and I know that they did too. All three of us were smiles when we parted, there in the baking aisle of Target, 6 days before Christmas.
So to all of you other members of The Christmas Shopping Procrastination Club: Cheers to you!
You will get it done.
In time.
And in spectacular fashion.
Remember, we do our best work in the shadows of December 24th.
I have yet to fail my children, Christmas always happens. I know that they appreciate me for all the buckeyes that I crank out, the Christmas music that I play, and the pandemonium that goes on in the kitchen during the 5 days that lead up to it.
Let’s take a breath as we slide into home gang. Because we will remember to put our feet up in front of the tree with a glass of wine, and toast, before it’s over..that we got it done!
Merry Christmas to the Members of The Christmas Shopping Procrastination Club. 🙂
We got this!
With a lot of love and perseverance,
Kate
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