Saturday December 13, 2008
The last parcels from Amazon and associates arrived today and have been stowed in my ‘do-not-touch-if-you-value-your-life’ drawer ready for wrapping in the very cheapest Christmas gift wrapping paper I can find. I will not be blackmailed into spending £5 a sheet on paper that’s going to be ripped off and shoved in the trash on Christmas day.
One more gift to find, when we go Swansea centre shopping, and then I’m done. Graham says I’m daft to feel the need to traipse the streets in search of inspiration when all that’s really necessary is to click a button on the Amazon screen.
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “But it doesn’t feel the same, somehow.”
“Well, don’t go wearing yourself out, that’s all.”
“I won’t. Promise.”
Actually, writing this I’m wondering if I ought not to get a small, light present for the postman. Six days a week, never complaining, he trots up to the door bearing letters, packets and parcels. Doesn’t seem right that the traffic should be one way. I’ll see if I can’t find something inexpensive he can pass on to his dad if it doesn’t suit.
It’s a bit of a balancing act, Christmas, in many ways. Take Christmas cards. What with the cost of the card and envelope, and then the postage on top, it’d total to more than we spend on our Christmas dinner to send physical cards out all over the world. And now we’re all of us warned not to send or accept ‘virtual’ cards for fear of infecting our own and other folks’ computers with nasty software.
This year I shall revert to my old practice of finding a nice Christmas picture and making a bit of a presentation of it for the journal. And, should anyone send me a ‘real’ card, I’ll send off my grateful thanks and drop a small coin in the box as a donation to the Cat’s Protection League.
I hate being mean, especially at Christmas.
When I woke this morning it was to find that Graham had stayed up late to finish the Christmas tree. I’ll get him to take a photo of it and, for the moment, confine myself to a shot I took this afternoon of a little illuminated ceramic tree, on the shelf in the living room close by a couple of our art pots. Not the best of photographs but I’m still having problems keeping myself cough and sneeze-free for photo sessions.
A little touch of Christmas
