It's the most wonderful time of the year.....

.....

Why is it that Xmas seems to bring out the worst in people? It's like it becomes a competition to see who can ram the shopping cart up your ass faster and harder than the previous, who can jack the parking spot you're about to back into, and how fast can you run through the mall (visions of old OJ Simpson commercials come to mind) to get the gift that really mattered but because of high demand and low stock, someone else has beaten you to it?

The joy has been taken out of the season by shopping maniacs! Don't even try to go to Costco during the month of December.. You have to make your own parking spot because half the population of the planet is in there buying out 5 gazillion rolls of asswipe because you know with the holidays, you just might run out.

Isn't the stress of trying to find the perfect gift bad enough without having some irate shopper beat down on you?

Normally I like to complete my Xmas shopping well before the December 24th deadline as in the week before Christmas there's generally nothing left on the shelves and everyone and their mother, sick or healthy are packed into the malls like sardines in a can, which generally means if I venture into one at this point, I'll most likely get sick. It took me a month and a half to drag out of my sister what size her daughter takes, and even then my other sister had to tell me.. now I can't even get out of my sister what she wants for Xmas, or my brother in law and I still have one niece and nephew who I have yet to buy for. Ugh. I've decided I'll just throw some money at them and they can go deal with it themselves.

Christmas celebrations began a week ago, as I went to Ottawa to have an early Christmas with my family there.. The kids were happy with their presents (as my son put it, "it's the best christmas ever!!"). This weekend I let them open their gifts at home, since we're on the road driving to New Jersey on Christmas Day. Last year I let them open their presents on Christmas Eve and the poor little buggers didn't have enough time to truly enjoy their presents and they spent most of the vacation saying.."I can't wait to get home so I can play with....." So now they have a week to get it out of their system.

Oh well, back to packing up gifts..

And that's a wrap!