My (unfortunately annual) late-Christmas-gifts apology

[chanaleh]

An open letter to all the family members -- parents, siblings, aunts, niece, and cousins -- who might reasonably expect to get Christmas gifts from me... eventually.

Every year I walk the fine line between "Oh, it's MUCH too early to worry about Christmas shopping and shipping", and "Holy crap, it's December 20th! I should have mailed everything 2 days ago!!".

And every year, it seems, I fall down on the wrong side of that line. You would think I would learn, wouldn't you?

It doesn't mean I don't love you, it just means I am terminally lame. Seriously. I apologize for this. Yes, I've been busy, but who isn't? If I'd planned ahead better -- scheduled in this set of tasks over the past three weeks as rigorously as I schedule all the other work and obligations in my life -- I might be cozily sipping hot chocolate and watching A Charlie Brown Christmas tonight, instead of rushing through last-minute arrangements with this guilty feeling hanging over my head. (Well, not really; actually, I'd be 100 pages further behind on the book project I'm currently typesetting, and therefore even more panicked about that, but the point of this note is not to make excuses.)

It also means I am mentally giving credence to author Ellen Kushner's suggestion of reviving New Year's gifts and cards in place of the Christmas and/or Chanukah versions.

See, for what it's worth, it's not some subconscious resistance to the Christmas idea. I have no fewer than 3 Chanukah gifts I had in time but still have not given, and three more that I still haven't actually even obtained. Moreover, during Chanukah proper, although I had all my gifts for Tiger Boy in sufficient time, I was scurrying EVERY NIGHT before we lit the menorah to wrap the one I was planning to give him THAT NIGHT. *sigh* I could claim that "oh, Chanukah was early this year," but seriously, that is not the problem. It's just me.

I reiterate that I love you just as much as ever and want to send you presents. And I will. Just not in time for the joyful Christmas opening. Watch for them sometime next week. Maybe even on Boxing Day.

In the meantime, I hope your respective Christmases are merry and bright.

P.S. The packages should also include wedding save-the-date announcements for August 31, 2008.

Much love,
chanaleh

Comments

[dee-cee.livejournal.com]

OMG, I have felt like this all week. We scrambled to get presents to my folks in OR, we still need to get presents for E's side, and I haven't even shopped for him.

Oh, I feel you on this.

And just let people know? You'll be recovering from the "Wedding Tornado," so next year might be just as bad. Trust me. ;)


And YAY for Save the Date!

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think you have AT LEAST as much excuse as I do! I haven't even sent you guys my kitty condolences, but I was sad over your poor Poe. :-(

Having two "waves" (the distant and the local) seems like it should help matters, but I bet it really doesn't. :-} "Whew, that batch is done! Let's put it out of our minds for the next 12 hours... um, 24... 72... gah!"

Anyway, merry Christmas to you! Don't let the holiday-related craziness get you down!

[http://users.livejournal.com/urban_faerie_/]

Don't feel bad. I ONLY do new year's gifts and cards for my friends. Only my family gets gifts ON the holiday. It is too stressful to try and get everything ready before new year's. I highly support the post holiday gifting!

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

My family's long since adopted the tradition that some Hanukkah gifts are exchanged on Christmas. In years when I've had big Christmas performance commitments (or my sibs have been slammed with work or Dad's been on the road or Mom's been up to her eyeballs in community volunteer stuff...we're a busy bunch) this is often extended to New Year's.

No one seems to mind, as long as gifts given on New Year's aren't too obviously the product of re-gifting or a frantic trip to the after-Christmas bargain sales.

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

wedding save-the-date announcements for August 31, 2008.

You do realize this means we can now crash your wedding if we don't get invites, right? ;)

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Meep!

... Only if you also get Christmas packages from me. :-D Um.

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

No, you've gone and posted it to teh interwebs. You are now doomed. ;)

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Just wait until http://world.std.com/~muffin/wedding/ goes up! :-D

[struct.livejournal.com]

"And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not, for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you this day is born in the City of Bethlehem, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men.'"

That's what Christmas is all about, Chanaleh Brown! ;)

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Hee!

Yet that raises an interesting point: what is Christmas in fact "all about", for me? Not so much the above "tidings of great joy"... though of course it's easy to get behind -- as well as to lose sight of -- "on earth peace/good will toward men". But it's not so much about, say, the family togetherness when I'm a good 1000 to 3000 miles from any of my actual family. I will in fact be spending it with 'chosen family', as they say, but do I need Christmas for that? Ah, well.

P.S. Speaking of tidings of great joy: Happy birthday!!

[struct.livejournal.com]

Thank ye, thank ye. I've been spending the day trying not to panic about my age. I feel like I've just gotten out of my twenties, and now here I am all-of-a-sudden midway through my danged thirties... :-{

[c1.livejournal.com]

Some years ago, I made a chance friendship with a priest who just happened to also be an EMT-- go figure. (He could save you twice!)
When I was in art school, writing a paper about stained glass in gothic cathedrals, he and I discussed the topic. It was then that he keyed me into something I didn't know.
Christ was actually born sometime in the spring. "Moving it to after the solstice was our idea-- an effort to convert the pagans."

I think he single-handedly gave me the biggest push toward agnosticism.

By the way, who's shooting your wedding?

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

In Israel the gift giving holidays are Rosh Hashana and Pesach. If the majority culture were willing to switch to the secular new year (picture the right wing talk jocks casting that proposal as further evidence of an alleged war on xmas) I would go along with it. But since that's not going to happen, on the principle set forth in the Shulkhan Aruch that "If the gentiles in your town tie the right shoe lace first and then the left, you should tie the left one first and then the right," I favor adopting the Israeli gift giving practice and restoring Chanukah to the very minor festival it's supposed to be.

[musicjill.livejournal.com]

new year's gifts sounds much nicer.

dan and i were too busy with the birth of our new niece to be involved in chanukah this year.

and now that you have a date...where will you have the wedding?

(marriot? marlowe...?)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Mazel tov on setting the date! Does this mean you've settled on the location?