xmas with the relatives...in our neck of the woods!

Traveling home for Christmas has always been bittersweet. On the one hand, you get to see relatives and exchange gifts and stories. We see people that we only see once a year, and everyone is (for the most part) in a good mood. But on the other hand, it is stressful and expensive to travel during the holidays, requires that we take time off of work (that we often would prefer to take for an *actual* vacation), and the kids only come home with more useless toys to take up space back home.

We had already made up our minds not to visit for Christmas this year. We visited during the summer instead, and hoped that would be adequate. As the end of the summer nears, our relatives have been dropping the usual guilt bombs about us not coming home for the holidays. I think we're doing pretty good at deflecting their probing, though, since we can honestly say that we just can't afford it at this time.

Fortunately, my parents have taken their lemons and made lemonade. My father called me yesterday to inform me that he had traded one of his timeshares for a week in a condo near us. They'll be here during the week between Christmas and New Year's. So while they won't be here on Christmas Day, we'll get to see them during the holidays after all. Although I was a bit against the idea at first, I have begun to appreciate the fact that my father bought his timeshare in Vegas. With my parents' overall fascination with gambling, taking several Vegas vacations each year didn't seem like such a good idea. But I can't argue with the trades that he has gotten out of it. Last summer, he traded some of it for our trip to Disney World, and now he has swapped another week so that we can spend the holidays together.

So this holiday season should be much less stressful than the usual, thanks to the fact that my parents were willing to come to us. Now if I could just get my mother-in-law to do the same...

bring out the guilt

So I 'm starting to feel a little guilt during the holidays. It's not because I'm a grinch (at least not more than usual), and it's not because I'm planning on presenting lumps of coal to my children this year. Rather, it has more to do with a decision that we made not to give gifts to adults anymore. We got tired of receiving them, and we don't really have the budget this year to give them, so we took them off the list and told our relatives. The problem? Our relatives ignored it and got us gifts anyway. I don't mind them getting the kids gifts, because Christmas presents are a kids whole existence this time of the year. but now I get to feel guilty because my relatives are spending so much more on us than we are on them.

For example, my sister sent us a large tin of Mrs. Fields cookies. Now at first I thought, "oh, cookies" and figured that wouldn't have spent so much, but when I considered ordering some for her in return, I discovered that she probably spent $40 on these. And they are good cookies, but $40??? Then she upped the ante by sending over a $50 gift certificate to Amazon. Geez! I'm considering using it to buy her a gift in return. Of course, my sister is pretty well off. She's in the medical field and makes a lot of money. But I can't help feeling like the family louse who doesn't give gifts because he is cheap. You know what we sent them? A homemade family slideshow that I created on my PC and burned onto DVDR. We also sent a few gifts for my niece, but they also sent us several gifts for our kids.

I even considered a quick regift to make up for it. That Bavarian crystal object that someone gave us that we'll never actually put out for decoration? Or perhaps a re-gift of some pseudo-fancy pens that I received last year from my sister's mother-in-law. Would she notice, though?

So I can't help but wondering if this makes me a bad person. Hopefully I will have more time next year to try and come up with something really nice to send the relatives. Perhaps it will still be inexpensive, but at least if it is homemade and well thought out, I won't feel so guilty about being the lame gift giver this year.

holiday drink

I almost forgot! Don't forget to pick up a nice bottle of wine (or whatever wets your whistle) to accompany the lavish meal you are preparing for your sweetheart tonight.

My wife is a sucker for long island iced teas, while I prefer a bold Jamaican beer like Red Stripe, or a specialty drink called a Swamp Cooler - it's like a spiked tea and cider. If you're looking for some specialty drink ideas, you should look online. I just ran across a Daucourt Martin liquor site via PPP offering drink recipes. Why not mix up something bold and unique for your special night?

This post brought to you on behalf of Daucourt Martin Imports.

It's V-Day

What are your plans? I currently have some marbled eggs simmering in a broth of tea leaves and soy sauce as an appetizer for tonight's traditional Chinese cuisine. I'm not a fabulous cook or anything, but I do like to experiment with other ethnic cuisines now and then.

The main course will be chicken in a black bean sauce. I ran out of beans, though, so I actually used kasha that I ground up - they should add a similar flavor. I'd go out for supplies, but the roads here are slick. I can't wait for winter to be over...

To wrap up the "experience" I have some traditional Chinese tunes that I am going to spin while I deliver a massage.

Don't forget to do something special for your loved one tonight.
Happy Valentine's Day!

a gift that keeps on giving...

...every time they open their inbox!

In my last post, I negatively ranted a bit about people waiting until the last minute to do their shopping. Since my wife is always telling me that I can be such a pessimist, here's my "glass half-full" suggestion for a possible solution.

Instead of waiting until the last minute, and then driving out to the stores at the stroke of midnight to pick up your gifts and greeting cards (further propagating the need for retail workers to stay late and on holidays), why not send an e-card? Whether it's a birthday or a holiday card, everybody likes to find something "jolly" in their inbox that isn't spam. You can always follow up later with a belated gift, and use the old "forgot your gift" excuse for the time being.

American Greetings even offers printable cards for those of you who feel that "e-cards" aren't personal enough. You pick the style you want, personalize it, and print it yourself. This is a *perfect* idea for those of you who like to drag your "better half" to the store, and make them wait on you for hours on end until you have read every last card to find the "perfect" one. This way - you pick the card, and you customize it to make it perfect yourself. No hassle, and no grumpy spouse. They've got invitations, and the e-cards range in styles from the witty and outrageous to the minimal and sublime, with all of the sob-story, touch-your-heart, missing-you themes that you would find at the local giftshop. Some of them are even *FREE*, something I challenge you to find at any mall.

Anyone with half a brain can figure out how to use their website, and unlike printed cards, these e-cards will often be kept in the receiver's inbox, so that they can view it again when they feel like a quick "pick me up". (This is a BIG difference from regular printed cards, which you blow $4 or $5 on and usually end up in the trash). Plus, here's a bonus for the procrastinators and organizationally challenged - they offer a free downloadable desktop calendar to help you remember birthdays and special events.

And if you don't like that, they've got customized talking e-cards, so you can apologize in your own words if you forgot their birthday and you are sending it late. Now you have no excuse! If you find yourself waiting until the last minute to get that shopping done, send an e-card instead. Then go save yourself a bundle on those post-holiday sales and follow up with a better gift than you could have afforded 24 hours earlier. It's a no brainer.

open for the holidays

I just heard a "friendly neighborhood" Walgreen's commercial on the radio, boasting that almost every one of their stores will be open 24/7 for the holidays this year. This type of disrespect for retail workers makes me sick. Let's be honest here. If you haven't picked up that gift by Midnight on Christmas Eve, is the receiver really going to miss it? Maybe there was a reason why your subconscious chose to ignore this person on your gift list until the very last minute. Is it really justifiable to make someone else spend their holiday away from family and at work, just so you could pick up a last minute holiday tin of Fiddle Faddle?

I worked at a grocery store as a teenager, and being low-man on the seniority pole, I distinctly remember having to close shop for most of the holidays. There was one Thanksgiving where we had this moron come in the store at 6pm, purchase a turkey, and feverishly bounce questions off each person he encountered as to how he could cook a whole turkey in less than an hour. "Microwave?" one of my coworkers suggested.

We were then instructed that we could not leave for the night until we had sold off all of the Thanksgiving cakes from the bakery. Thanksgiving cakes? Who the hell makes (or eats) cake on Thanksgiving? Pies perhaps, but cakes? None-the-less, a number of employees went home and started a strange Thanksgiving cake-eating tradition with their families that night.

Here's a suggestion - Let's give these poor folks a break for the holidays. If you have to wait until the last minute to do your holiday shopping, then pay someone else to do it for you early. Your karma will thank you for it. After all, there's a reason that they start those crazy holiday sales on the day after Thanksgiving - so that you don't have to wait until the "eleventh hour" to get it done.