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Sunday night ramblings about holiday doings

December 12th, 2011 at 06:17 am

It's been a weird couple of weeks for me schedule-wise...I've been taking Mondays off because I realized I had some use-em-or-lose-em vacation days, and Monday is the easiest day to have other people cover me. It hasn't felt very leisurely, because the other four days are just more intense to make up for it, but it's nice on Sunday nights knowing my week doesn't have to start just yet. Big Grin I've asked for Mondays off for parental leave when the baby comes, so I'll have a taste of this rhythm again next year.

Last week would've been manageable workwise, but two senior execs came to me and basically said we need to make a case to keep your main project from going to a competitor. So I spent about 4 hours total meeting with them, and writing up various requested documents. Now it's up to them to charm and wheedle our client to let us keep the project. If I hadn't gotten that recent promotion I honestly wouldn't be that bothered about it, but I'd hate to get demoted. Although my HR is so disorganized and my boss so supportive, there's a chance they wouldn't get around to that even if we did lose my main project. I'm pretty sure they'll always want at least one full-time proofreader/editor, and I'm the only non-contract one, so I'm pretty confident about job security either way.

So anyway, that made the rest of my workflow clog up and I nearly canceled tomorrow as a vacation day. But I moved enough stuff around that I can still do it.

On a good note about work, we had our holiday lunch on Friday, and in addition to delicious free food and wine, we got $250 in Amex gift cards. Smile NT's holiday party happened recently and they each got a $100 bill. Small but definitely appreciated bonuses; in this economy we don't count on anything from our companies.

Because my work weeks have been so intense, it's made me a bit stressed out about Xmas. When we were planning what we were going to do, it didn't seem like a lot, but there was a point where I started to feel stressed that I wouldn't accomplish it all. Well, we've made some good progress and I feel calm again. NT and I got all of our presents for AS at he mall last week, and AS and I finished shopping online for NT this Friday. I can tell they're about 2/3 done with my Xmas because they tell me what charges to deduct from that line item. Smile We finished getting AA's presents too; they're the only ones I can talk about because she's too little to read my blog. Smile

We got her a little wooden kitchen and a soft doll with three extra outfits. Her UK relations got her some toy food and dishes to go with the kitchen. My parents will probably get her some stuffed animals, some chalk and maybe another doll. I also emailed them that they could get her toy cars, board puzzles and coloring books/crayons -- out of our many hand-me-down toys, those are some missing items.

I got my parents a DVD of Wagon Train season 1 -- an old TV western that I don't think they have. (It was kind of pricey so I don't think they'd buy it for themselves; I found a great deal on eBay but my dad is not that web-savvy.) I also got an 8x10 print of a photo from our recent photo shoot; my mom has framed photos of every kid and grandkid in her living room and she likes it to be a recent pic, at least through graduation.

NT is taking care of his family; I know he's gotten some pics developed for them but don't know what else he's planning. AS is going to order a cookie basket or something similar that her mom and siblings can all enjoy, and she also got an 8x10 of one of the photos from our shoot.

We got holiday cards made from another of the shots -- a picture of us all looking up, the three of us sitting in a circle on the floor and AA standing in the middle also looking up. It's pretty cute. I went for the best card quality on the FedEx Office website so I only ordered 20 -- mostly for family, but also for a couple of friends that have gone above and beyond helping us with childcare and making sure we hung out. We've handed out a couple and I've been hunting down addresses for the rest -- will mail out as many as I can tomorrow on my day off, along with AS's mom's photo, and my parents photo and DVD.

So now, I actually find that things are coming together in plenty of time! We still have to wrap the gifts we ordered online as soon as they come in, and we have a few more Xmas decorations we could hang (though we've got the tree up, so I don't really care about the rest).

Most of the holiday parties we've been invited to are already out of the way -- there's one more for AS's office that the rest of us may or may not go to. My college had an alumni celebration last night, but the directions were funky and we couldn't find the place. We already had our car share and a babysitter, so we just went to a nice Thai restaurant and relaxed instead. Honestly, it was maybe even more fun than the party may have been. Wink We couldn't remember the last time all three of us went out to dinner together, without our daughter. Usually we take her out with us, or one of us stays home with her and the other two go out.

For Xmas we typically like to make some kind of special dinner. This year we decided that I'll make a wheat-gluten (seitan) roast with a stuffing inside; and AS will make these awesome dinner rolls she first tried out at Thanksgiving, plus some desserts; and NT will handle all the vegetable sides (right now he's thinking a potato dish and some parsnips). We love to cook, so that won't be stressful at all.

For gift-opening we're going to videotape AA opening her gifts so we can share it with family online. Technology is awesome. Smile

We usually go out with our best friends or over to their place for Xmas Eve, but haven't heard anything about it this year. If not, we'll just take it easy at home. NT has to assemble the toy kitchen anyway. Smile

We're not doing stockings or attempting to get AA to "give" gifts, or bothering with talking about Santa, beyond pointing him out in decorations. (She can point to him if you ask where Santa is, but she's mostly interested in his "hat" as that's one of her newer words.) Next year will be a bit more involved in that department, because she'll be able to anticipate and participate a lot more.

AS has been making holiday cookies when she feels up to it, but not the factory-like operation of non-pregnant years. I think that's fine. I'm trying to hold onto my weight loss anyway. Smile

This is one of the first years we've really given gifts and money to service providers. Well, I suppose we gave $100 to our first daycare lady the first Xmas. Oh yeah, and we made her some stew that she loved. But this year, we felt a bit more able to be generous, so we gave/are giving:
- $75 and a bunch of cookies to our house cleaner
- $25 to the holiday fund for our building management's employees
- $40 for our diaper service provider
- $175 in cash and gift cards to our incredible daycare lady, plus maybe some handmade toys for the daycare
- Oh! That reminds me I should do a card for our lawyer

Kiplinger always has an article around this time of advice for tips you can consider giving at this time of year, and one thing that struck me in this year's article was that they said you should think about tipping people who made your life easier over the year through their personal efforts. All of the above providers have impacted our lives positively. (The article also had some good practical advice about not giving if people felt strapped this year, but far from it, we actually feel pretty flush.)

So I think that's it for Xmas! It is kind of a lot of little things that added up to make me feel overwhelmed for about a week there, but now that things are moving along and we have plenty of time, I think it will be a relaxing and festive Xmas and that we'll make several friends, family and service providers happy, which is a main goal of the holiday. (We did extra donating of money to charities in November, so we'll just do the regular amounts this month.)

I have absolutely no idea what we're doing for New Year's. Since we so far only use friends for babysitting, I assume we wouldn't be able to get one, so we'll probably just hang out at home. Last year a friend came over and we just played videogames and snacked and drank wine, and I definitely wouldn't mind ringing in another year like that.

I haven't formalized my resolutions (or goals, I prefer to think of them these days), but I have a general idea of what I want to shoot for next year. I'll probably do a post about that closer to the end of the month.

Then we have to think of our January vacation to Mexico. Pretty much there's nothing to do for that; tickets, hotel and shuttle from the airport are ordered; we used some Amazon gift cards to get AS some maternity summerwear; we have cancellation insurance in case anything comes up (or if AS just plain doesn't feel up to it). I'm determined to mostly relax, take good care of AS and make sure AA has fun. There's plenty of money in the budget for NT to do some more adventurous stuff if he wants, and I might accompany him if AS feels up to taking care of AA, but otherwise I'm quite happy to lounge around as much as possible.

I guess that's it! I may do a more financial post tomorrow unless I get too busy running errands. If not, then later in the week.

3 Responses to “Sunday night ramblings about holiday doings”

  1. SicilyYoder Says:
    1323671735

    Gift cards are fun to receive. When I was the Land O' Lakes and Alouette sales rep, we had meetings in Chicago and received gift cards. They rewarded us very well, and I enjoyed spending some of the money at the airport. It's been stressful around here, too...too much to do, plus the daily pain from my car wreck, and Christmas goodies to finish baking. Enjoy your day off!

  2. creditcardfree Says:
    1323699735

    Sounds like you have things under control.

    We stay home on New Years with our kids and play board games. DH and I have some drinks. We put out easy appetizer type items for dinner and snacking. Easy, relaxing and so much fun!

  3. ceejay74 Says:
    1323707232

    Sicily, sorry you're still hurting -- you should take a page from AS's playbook and scale back on the holiday baking this year!

    CCF, that sounds heavenly. I'm getting to be more and more of a homebody; there's so much fun stuff and fun people/critters here, I just don't feel the need to go out as often! Smile

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