Christmas shopping.

Finally I have cleared the last of the bills & Ditz & I were able to start our Christmas shopping. We got to the jetty & there was a queue all the way down the jetty & onto the pontoon. The boat was jam packed & the humidity climbing steadily. The car was unbelievably hot, the traffic already jamming & people's tempers fraying...& people wonder why I dislike December. Usually, if I time it right, there is one day in a week when crowds & traffic are at a minimum & I can shop in peace. Not in December.

Dearest & I had agreed that this year I'd buy a proper DVD player instead of whatever it is my kids use to play DVDs on ~ which meant I could indulge in DVDs & shopping for everyone should be a breeze this year, right? How I wish! For starters there are 3 DVD outlets so it was price comparision to start with & of course I couldn't get all the movies I had in mind cheapest at the same place, could I? We went back & forth, back & forth trying to find something I deemed suitable for my boys that I knew they would watch & then our church Chairman's wife spotted me & for an hour & a half we held what amounted to a church meeting in the middle of the shopping centre. That will teach me to be sick for more than a month & unavailable to people! Poor Ditz waited patiently. I sent her for donoughts & milkshakes but by then we'd both had enough. The queues were just getting longer & longer & the residue of my wog means I still tire very quickly so we turned tail & fled.

Ditz adores all the glitter & sparkle & hub~bub that constitutes the Christmas season & we were barely through our own door before she had the wrapping paper out & was asking could she start wrapping presents. Why not? I went & wrestled with the ink cartridges on the printer so I could finish typing our family newsletter & actually start sending out Christmas cards. This year requires a bit of tweaking. I was much better organized last year & all our cards had gone before Mark died so this year there are still people who will be shocked to learn that Christmas is somewhat of a delicate juggling act for us. My nephew is having a particularly hard time coming to terms with his father's death; he shares occassionally with my girls, my girls share with me.

Ditz has one more concert & we are done for the year! Then I can start focusing on the bits of Christmas I actually like ~ our carol night, cooking cookies with Ditz, catching up with eveyone's news as the cards start arriving, meditating on what was going on in the heavenly realms the night Christ was born as man. Now if I can just clear that desk Ditz can put up the tree!