I got a bunch of presents (19) wrapped last night, then my back began to ache from all the bending over. I'll try to finish the rest tonight. Growing up, the wrapped presents were from my parents, grandparents, etc., and the ones that were not wrapped were from Santa. I was going to do that with the grandkids' presents. Oh no, Dh wouldn't hear of it. He has insisted they ALL be wrapped. I have about 20 more to go.
For the past couple weeks, Dh has been doing all kinds of wonderful things for me. First, he cleaned, and organized the garage. Next, he took care of my chickens for me. In the meantime, he's been cautioning me to be a little careful, but letting me know I can spend a little more money for Christmas, if I want, or need to. I thought about it, and no, he's not cheating on me. I checked, and no he's not buying a lot of things for himself, and not telling me. Hmmmm. One night, he began asking about some of the charges on the card to Amazon, for Christmas gifts. No big deal. He washed my truck. A couple days later, he waxed my truck. Ok, what gives? Then it hit me. He's hunting for his Christmas present from me. He's been all over the house, coop, storage, and my truck trying to find his present.
What a sneaky hubby! So, where
did you hide it?? I won't tell!
We don't do Christmas at all, so no wrapping, no Santa stuff, no tree, no sneaking, no nothing. It's very freeing. We started that when the kids were very young, doing the traditional stuff because that's what we knew, then, after some soul-searching, we just decided we would no longer participate in this or a couple other holidays, so have not done any of that in about 30 or more years. That is one reason we want to get to January 2nd so we hunker down and try to be somewhat invisible, other than going to the family dinner because that is the only time we see most everyone at once, including my niece who is an RN and lives in SC, the daughter of my husband's brother who just passed away. I hope she makes it this year with her schedule. Some years, I just can't take it so I let DH go without me. Some years, I do gift folks things I've made, but that's because I never see them. This year, I'm using a bunch of fancy bags I found in my dad's basement--Banana Republic, The Gap, Victoria's Secret, New Baby, Harrods, etc, etc, all from my hoochie-mama Dad's wife's family, LOL.
I have no family involved in anything, holiday or otherwise. My younger son is still out of the country until next summer or fall. My older son is a restaurant manager so he rarely has time off and when he does, he either goes to concert venues close to Atlanta or to his in-laws who live in the same neighborhood. We are 2 1/2 hrs north so we are apparently too far and cost too much gas to come see more than once every two years. Geez, kids. I say kids, but he's 40. I don't see my sister, never have-the only reason I ever had any contact with her had to do with our adoptive father and since he's gone now, not much reason to have contact with her. Sorry to say I don't much like her, never have, we're too different. Anyway, my husband's family is
way more than enough, ack! He even has a low tolerance for family mess. It's pretty much just us 24/7.
Enough of family drama, let's talk chickens! I'm with you, Kara, on the more work in winter issue. Though we have everyone in the barn, in winter, it makes me want far fewer chickens. I'm still waiting on quite a few to kick the bucket, though I will be sad and miss those when they're gone. The upside is less work! I know I need more younger layers, but I am torn between hatching in spring or just not doing anything until someone (or multiple someones) dies!
