Happy Festivus Georgie

What's so great about a mom and pop store? Let me tell you something, if my mom and pop ran a store, I wouldn't shop there. *

me, running away from a family party the minute someone suggests a game involving flour

I said I wasn't going to talk about it again, but here I am. I may not like Christmas, but everyone else I know does so gifts are a thing. We've had some success in negotiating smaller amounts of gift swapping between adults, but to remove gifts altogether was a no-no. 

The other thing that's changed is that I've started to manage expectations of myself. I, well we really as Dan was pretty much the same, used to tie ourselves up in knots trying to find wonderful, unique gifts for people. This year we said stop the madness, why were we stressing ourselves out looking for a stand out gift for someone who gives us a TK Maxx gift card every time (turns out the person with the least imaginative gift is the person most resistant to stopping gift giving, makes no sense to me at all). 

So we decided to fat dog it. So we did the majority of our shopping at the book shop, Tiger (shop selling cheap stuff, my MIL loves it) and the supermarket. Yes, we bought most of our gifts from Sainsbury's. Felt a bit weird, but there you go. If people don't like it, then it makes no change from any other year, but almost everyone needs books, pens and clothes don't they. Actually, do people still need pens? 

We ended up having a really good time, mainly due to finding this product

Who came up with this packaging**, other than a Seinfeld fan, and who gave the thumbs up to using it? It made my day, I bought some for Dan, they're wrapped and are tucked under the aluminium pole***. It did make us pause for thought and ask ourselves would people accept a card informing them we'd made a donation to The Human Fund, but decided against it. You can't just go round doing what George Costanza would do, appealing though the thought may be. 

I even wrapped it all, after finding about four shops worth of paper and gift bags under the spare bed.  Now all that's left for me as a non religious person is to attend carol concerts, eat nut roast, enjoy the M&S coconut and chocolate creamy Bailey's-style drink, and remember to write down how I feel today on my new calendar. 

* From "The Mom And Pop Store", Seinfeld season 6. Although also true if my parents did own a shop, I dread to think what they'd sell. 

** From "The Alternate Side", Seinfeld Season 3. 

*** From "The Strike", Seinfeld Season 9.