What a Week

In the aftermath of a really nice Christmas, it’s interesting to look back and reflect on the week leading up to it. It’s amazing what we go through for the holidays, and it’s easy to see why we become so cynical. There’s just way too much going on. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot I enjoy, and R and I love spending time with the kids, but taking care of the business of the holidays takes up so much time and energy that it’s hard to stop and just have some down time.

Then again, gifts and giving are such a big part of it. In certain ways it’s easy to romanticize just having quiet time at home by the fire, but let’s face it. It’s gratifying, at least for me, giving a nice gift that really touches a special chord in a person, especially your kids. That makes it all worth while.

Besides, it’s hard to argue with the fact that a lot of the craziness in our lives stems from hockey, and hockey is a beast that I brought into this household. I’ve got nobody else to blame but myself. On that note, last week was a bit insane. In addition to the usual craziness, we had to scramble to finish mom’s gift list, get all of our Christmas cards out, send out assorted gifts to the west coast, and prepare for the big day.

As I’ve mentioned, it went down to the wire. I spent the week scrambling to fill the kid’s wish lists, which isn’t easy when they’re there with you. There were assorted gifts that were easier for me to obtain, and since I’m with the kids, it made sense to bring them along with me. This required that I distract them while I made the purchases then clandestinely went to the car and hid them in the trunk. Somewhat challenging, but fortunately, the kids are curious and like to head off on their own in various stores, especially ones with cool toys.

By Friday we could focus on getting mom’s stuff together. We had made significant steps throughout the week, and by Saturday we could put on the finishing touches. It was funny because I wanted the kids to be integrally involved, and they jumped at the chance. We have a new Christmas tradition of making collage pictures of all the big events in our lives, many of which involve travel. This involved gathering all the photos together that were worth printing, then whittling down each event to 20 pics or less. Needless to say, this was a challenge because in some of the groups, like our trips to various cities in Croatia and Italy (all individual groups), there are literally hundreds of pics. All in all we were dealing with about 1000 pics. Crazy.

I did the initial work and made the groups, then trimmed the fat so that there were about 20 pics in each group. We ended up with about 20 groups, which I then downloaded onto the site where we get the prints made. From there the kids took over. The site is cool because it automatically turns the pics into a collage, but you can ask it to rearrange them randomly, or place the pictures yourself. The kids chose the latter, and they did a great job. They chose the color of the border, the font, and then placed it into the shopping cart. From there, we ordered them, and we were all set.

I went and got the collages two days before Christmas. Even on Christmas Eve, we had a few loose ends to tie up, and I got a couple of last minute presents that we felt would make the gifts complete. It wasn’t even that stressful, and going into consumer hell wasn’t that painful, even on Christmas Eve. The crowds were very manageable.

Best of all, the kids loved their presents, we didn’t overboard with all sorts of junk, and now we can get on with our lives and get back to hockey. I love when that happens.

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas, and thanks for reading, and thanks to Peter Hilton for the pic.