SOOO TIRED OF WRAPPING

OMG, we (in other words, I) buy waaayyyy too many presents at Christmas time. We buy for everybody in the family, and I have a tendency to get just a smidge carried away. Growing up I probs didn't realize it so much, but my siblings and I were pretty damn spoiled. My Christmas morning always had wrapped packages from the tree all the way to the middle of the living room for the three of us kids. To me that was just normal.  Even though I knew it was more than my friends got from Santa, when you're 7 or 8 you don't make the "spoiled" connection.

Once I got older, got married and had the girls, the going overboard with gifts just continued on. Hell, it still goes on. I cook Christmas Eve dinner, and everybody comes. It's wonderful even though my house isn't really big enough for 10 adults and 3 grandkids. When we're finished eating, my mom and siblings give the grandkids their presents to open, and then they head off to church while my daughters and their families head out to their dad's.  A bit later the girls and hubbies come back and we exchange gifts, and then we all go to my mom's usually around 10 p.m., we eat some snacks and then we open our gifts. The packages still go to the middle of the living room. 

We always take turns opening, and there are 10 of us adults doing it, and there were many years when it took until 3 a.m. to finish up. We try to do it a bit quicker now because my girls have the other sides of their respective families to be with the next day. Lack of sleep is always an issue. For myself, I don't care. It's once a year, and I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can. My mom is 85, and I don't want to take a minute of our traditions for granted. That being said, she's a very young 85, and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if she outlived most of us. lol

It's excessive and ridiculous and I love it. I love, love, love buying for everybody.  Ever year I say I should cut back, but it never happens. This year I spent more than ever before. I just can't seem to help myself. It's just so much fun watching them open! Griffin is 3 now so he should really be fun to watch, and Peyton is 8 so she'll be a joy, too. Treyson is 14, so that childlike attitude is switching to a bit more grown up. He is a freshman in high school; I guess he wasn't going to stay little forever no matter how much I willed it.

Now that I'm probs going to be jobless, we'll see what happens next year since I won't have the money I usually set aside every week specifically targeted for Christmas shopping. I'll try my damndest, tho.

Now, as much as I like the gift giving, I do not particularly care for the wrapping. It takes hours and hours, and I always end up with a very sore back from sitting on the floor doing it.  

CNS requested this mani, and doing this wrapping was a lot less work.

This was another one of those "quickie" mani's before my surgery so I didn't even bother taking note of what I used. They asked for red, green and purple. So that's what I did. Pretty basic. I had to do the bows freehand, and as you probs know, I am not a fan of my freehand work. So for me it's just kind of "meh".

For some reason last week my right index nail came loose. Apparently all this sitting around took its toll. Weird. I pulled it off and set it on my end table so I could reapply it. A few minutes later Baylee wanders over to the table and for some reason decided she should steal it. WTF? I look over and she's chomping, and it took me a minute to realize what she probably had. Luckily she decided it didn't taste so delish and dropped it on the rug. Thank God they are guaranteed to not break because even though I saw her chewing, there wasn't a mark on it. I'm glad she didn't swallow the damn thing. I have an extra one, but still....

And I don't think Kev would have appreciated me having him "search for it" in the snow, if ya' know what I mean.

Hey! Don't forget to please go vote for my snowflake mani over at the China Glaze contest if you haven't already! :)