21 December 2010

Giving gifts, exchanging cards

This is my post from six years ago. I was fussing over the delayed gift-shopping with seven more long days to go before the big day? How to call the present-day me then? I still have nothing. Zero. Nada.

It's already the 21st of December. My oldest godchild is off to the United States tomorrow and all I told her was to just see me when she gets back after the holidays.

What will the post office people tell me if I come bearing a stack of Christmas cards to mail any day now? Oh shoot, is December 24 a holiday?

Going to the mall is too daunting a task. Hay.

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Giving gifts, exchanging cards

My holiday sense is slowly turning from bad to worse. It's the second day of Simbang Gabi and I still haven't bought a single Christmas gift. Where have all my time and plans gone?

I was a professional crammer back when I was still in school, the only explanation I can give myself and it's not even a reasonable one.

I started okay, really. I finished writing cards for friends abroad as early as the last week of October. My list survived countless revisions but ready by last week of November. I mailed the cards first day of December. They have reached their destinations here and abroad, save for the two sent to Iloilo and Quezon, got lost probably. They will turn up, I have great faith in our postal service. I just hope it reaches my friends before the middle of next year.

I even have one big blooper, the Christmas cards I got this year were so small my annoying little cousin said it looks like an over-sized gift tag. I honestly didn't realize it was small until I opened the box at home. To think that it took me a good thirty minutes to decide which one to get. I had trouble picking from three different sets but I didn't want anything too red and too gold so I got the one with cute little bears. It cost more than the other two but I liked the box at first sight. Lucky me, they're really small, but hey, it's the thought that counts!

And the gifts... maybe because I haven't thought of a particular theme until now. I started a themed Christmas two years ago and actually thought it was easier to get gifts that way. From friends to godchildren and everyone else, I gave them books. Then went all sleepwear last year.

I partially blame the book I consulted just before the -ber months came. It even got me more confused than ever. I should have trusted my instincts at the start.

I'm dreading the trip to the mall especially at this time of the season but I don't really have a choice, do I?

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Gosh, I miss the old me. When I still can write a piece with less than a thousand words. This one in particular only has 359. Imagine! The last one I did was a sickening 3,496. Global warming did this to me?