Five for Friday: Didn't Do

This Five for Friday list is 5 things that I didn't do this year for Christmas.  In an effort to put less stress on myself (and my family), capture that elusive Christmas Spirit, hang on to it with all my might...and smile more this season.

1.  I'm not sending Christmas cards. Sorry if you're disappointed.  I'm considering sending a Happy New Year's card with a photo of the whole family sometime in January.  I know many of our friends and relatives like to see how the kids have grown so I'd like to send something. Being so far away from a bunch of people we love, I really need to send something.  It can wait.

2.  I did A LOT of shopping online this year.  In fact, most of my shopping I did online.  It's wonderful when you can shop in your comfy-cozies; no crowds, rude people, nasty sales people and weather to contend with.

3.  We FINALLY bought a new fake Christmas tree.  The last one we bought while we were living in the house on Stanford Avenue in La Mesa...let's see...at least 12 years we had that tree! We bought a pre-lit tree.  I was poo-pooing it because I was concerned about the lights not working when we unpack it next year.  Who cares! It was so easy to get the tree up...no unwrapping the lights, laying them out to see if they still worked, running to Target to get more lights, stringing them on the tree...it's all done for you! I highly recommend a pre-lit tree, you will whine less and smile more.
 
4.  To say that I have a lot of Christmas ornaments is a gross understatement.  I have hundreds!! I have enough to decorate two 6' trees, easy. They're all cute...very few actual Christmas "balls" and traditional stuff like that...they're stuff you'd buy at craft fairs or hand make.  Really beautiful to look at...I love them all and each holds a wonderful memory or story.  BUT put all these ornaments on the tree and you can't even see the TREE!!  In fact, it's so many, you can't even see the ornaments when looking at the tree...just looks like a sea of stuff. Ok, so this year, we only put up about half of them.  Now you can see each ornament and the tree as well. I store them in two large boxes...so one box was unpacked and each one lovingly placed on the tree.  In the other box I placed a piece of typing paper (yes, I call it typing paper not computer or printer paper, so there) and wrote "2014" so I'd know which one to use next year.  Nice, huh?  I have to admit, I was a little sad about this but I decided it was more fun (less grumbling about too many ornaments and not enough room on the tree) and I'd probably appreciate seeing the ornaments in the 2014 box even more.

5.  And lastly, I didn't make myself crazy this year trying to knit a bunch of stuff for Christmas presents.  It's very stressful to knit with a deadline, which is closer than you think if you have to mail something across the country. Oh, people will be getting hand knit stuff because I knit up and set aside certain projects throughout the year.  It's called planning ahead and every once in a while I actually do just that.