This Christmas, I hardly did any shopping at all. I kind of went on strike, to protest how Christmas has turned so materialistic and commercial. Christmas is Jesus’ birthday but people seem to forget that now. Ed and I didn’t exchange gifts and I bought just tiny tokens to give our family and friends who invited us to their homes or came to our house during the yuletide season. For the first time ever, the amount we donated to charity was more than the amount we spent on the little token gifts we bought. It’s a trend we hope to continue into future Christmases.
The main topic of discussion everyday was how much snow had fallen over our lovely city. I let the cats out onto our patio on Boxing Day. Bob declined and just watched Neo romp in the snow from the safety of our living room. Neo was batting at the snowflakes falling down with his paws and was digging at the snow to get to the flakes that landed. He was hilarious.
We hosted Christmas dinner for Ed’s family and my family. It’s the first time we had them over at the same time. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the food turned out well. Whew. We also enjoyed the company of close friends throughout the week. Spending time with family and friends has become the essence of the season for me. And I’m really glad we were able to see many of them the past couple of weeks.
We also had a house guest; cousin Jenny is here from Toronto. When we were snowed in on Boxing Day, Jenny had the great idea that we should do some baking. Since I haven’t baked in years, I had none of the essential baking ingredients in my cupboard. So we trekked to the nearby supermarket, loaded up on flour, baking powder, baking soda, etc and baked some goodies. My cream cheese brownies were delicious! I’m so proud of myself.
We also went for a walk in the snow around our neighbourhood. Winter wonderland! It was fantastic and so pretty. Too bad I forgot to bring my camera and totally forgot that my phone has a camera. Darn.
All in all, it was a pretty quiet and simple Christmas. And I enjoyed it a lot.
2 comments:
Christmas with you guys was lots of FUN - thanks again for the hospitality! Who's next to occupy my room :)
I totally agree with you on the materialism of Christmas. It's time with friends and family, it's giving to others who don't have and it's celebrating the birth of Christ...that's what Christmas is all about. Well, that and seeing the kids faces when they open presents. I still love that! I look forward to seeing you and Ed soon. We just talked about it last night. It's going to happen in 09! Count on it!
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