Holiday Madness

[vsp]

I am an atheist, but I can get into the secular aspects of Christmas (watching nieces' and wives' eyes light up when they're done shredding the wrapping paper) to some extent.

I am not a Christmas card person. Some people choose to treat them like a strategy-tactics RPG -- "HE sent me one last year, so I'll send one to him. I think she might send me one this year, so I'd better send her one or she won't send me one last year." Who gives a rat's ass, other than people who have stock in Hallmark?

Much of my family is right here in the Philly area -- my wife, father and I are in West Chester, my aunt and her daughter, son-in-law and three grandkids are in Newtown Square, and my other cousin, his wife and two kids are in Parkesburg. We used to get together for lots of holidays, but when my grandmother and uncle died a few months apart, it shot the guts out of that spirit -- those two were the glue that held the extended family together, so to speak. Still, I'm sure we'll get an invite to Christmas dinner.

My wife's family is in Williamsport, and we'll visit them for an extended weekend.

Gift-giving gets ridiculous for people of my age (thirties). One cousin has three kids; another has two. My wife has four nephews and two nieces. All of the above are under 18, so all are kinda sorta expecting gifts, and that's BEFORE figuring in the adults. As such, my side of the family has an unofficial rule that if you're buying for someone's kids, you don't have to buy for the parents, for sanity's sake. Even then, I usually go the gift-card route, figuring that I'm sufficiently out-of-touch with what makes a twelve-year-old happy these days.

My wife is having lots of fun Christmas shopping for clothes for the kids on eBay, which will save a lot of holiday headaches.