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There will be joy in Whoville

I seem to remember my grandmother telling me she finished her Christmas shopping by Halloween one year. Now before you go thinking she’s a crazy cat lady with nothing better to do, let me tell you she has only one cat. Also, she keeps busy. She really enjoys doing things for others, and, uh, just maybe she’s been known to spoil her grandkids. Of which I am the oldest. So when I tell you she finished by Halloween, it really was a feat.

My goal wasn’t Halloween. I always think about it, but in reality I rarely buy things in, say, May because I think they’d be the perfect Christmas present for someone. No, I foolishly believe I’ll remember what it was, and I’ll buy it later when I’m dealing with holiday stuff. Yes, this means I have to think of a whole new perfect thing, because I pretty much never remember what the first perfect thing was. My goal is to be done shopping before we go to Disneyworld on December 2nd. I’ll be like those athletes who win a big game and shout they’re going when I’m done shopping.

Ideally, not only will I be done shopping (except for Lisa) before vacation, I’ll have everything wrapped. Wrapping is one of those “my job” things, as Mrs 12frogs really isn’t so much into into the paper, ribbon, scotch tape, and spatial reasoning needed to prettify odd-shaped packages. All this sounds reasonable if ambitious, until I throw in the Christmas card thing.

Every year I make my own cards. They used to be linoleum block prints, but in the last couple of years I’ve gotten more interested in other things. For last year’s cards, I made a crazy number of snowflakes — no two alike, and they needed to be cut with an exacto knife. Clearly I should consider production time when designing, but I don’t. I picked up the raw materials for this year’s (meaning, I fondled a bunch of stuff at Paper Source, then brought home the small-sized folded cards) without having a definite plan. I’m hoping by Thanksgiving, inspiration will hit.

See, I need time to devote to stringing lights on an almost obscenely large tree when we get back from Disney. To sip mint tea with my feet up while listening to the original Grinch music. To watch just about everyone else get all frenzied.

So I’m taking tomorrow off, and we’re going shopping again. I will finish early, and I will wear my Stitch-ears-santa-hat of victory when I do.