blogging, creative writing, first world problems, midlife, momlife, writing

Thoughts about gift giving, writing and She Sheds

To be quite honest, I don’t really believe in this whole gift giving thing at Christmas anymore. Sure, let the kids have some presents, but for myself, I honestly don’t need or even want anything.

Which doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the token. I’m just saying, save your money. 🙂

There is only one pertinent wish I continue to have which I have to work toward myself (unless I meet a millionaire who wants to gift me) and that is a room with a door on it so I have a writing office to call my own. Or, they can buy or build me a She Shed. 😉

A She Shed would be perfect as it would still be on the premises of my home, but separate (i.e. in the backyard) and away from the noise and clutter.

I’ve been thinking a lot about writing lately (and doing some of it). That’s because I’ve been in the mood. You know what I mean? When I cook up things in my head I just want to get the words out. It’s like I’m living in a different dimension, and everything I do physically (tend to kids and family bla bla blah) I do on autopilot. All I want is to preserve what is brewing in my head so I can sit down and churn out the words.

I edit the stories later. First, I just write. Usually in my Evernote app which I have handy and synced on three devices.

Anyway.

Christmas and gift giving.

What am I going to do to get out of this funk?

Well for one thing, I have to come to terms that a She Shed isn’t in the works at the moment. But I do have a list of items I can get off of Amazon for the one kid…the other kid I’m not sure about yet. We’ll see. He’s a growing boy with interests in sports but he doesn’t have too many outside interests and his love for reading has waned, a lot, in recent years which is unfortunate because books are always a great gift idea.

Maybe I’ll just give him food. Ha. 😉

Today, many Europeans celebrate the arrival of Saint Nikolaus. In Switzerland he’s called Samichlaus. My mom is making us lunch (for the kids and I, there’s no school today) so we’re heading out to their town to have a visit. I’m planning on bringing my laptop because I want to show my dad the photos of our Switzerland trip back in July, specifically, the downtown part of Zurich where he used to work when we lived there in the 1970s.

But first, I need to check the weather. Apparently there’s another snowstorm on the way.

Ugh.

TGIF!

28 thoughts on “Thoughts about gift giving, writing and She Sheds”

  2. I am right there with you on the gift-giving. I do not want anything if I do get it myself. All I want is some time to myself. Yes, in a bah humbug… My kids are adults now, so all they want some give cards and a little spending money. Easy enough.

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  6. I agree. I said out loud that I was thinking of NOT getting anyone any gifts, just writing personalized letters. I’m not doing that, but I feel like it. I LOVE Christmas, the spirit of it, that is. The gift-giving I can do without.

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    1. The mindless, obligatory gift giving is what many of us could do without…the personalized, mindful, creative, loving gift giving is not what irks me.

      My daughter draws everyone she loves a picture every year. Even her older brother who teases her to tears regularly.
      I post those pictures on his bedroom wall. He doesn’t take them down.

      This means something
      🙂

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  7. My other half keeps talking about building a shed for herself in the back garden. Of course ever having enough money to buy or construct such a thing is another matter…

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  8. Okay, I’m on the odd side of this. I actually love getting gifts. Mostly though, that is because my Hubby is a rock star at finding fun, creative gifts (that are still perfectly useful) and I’m always excited to see what he comes up with. That and having a million and one hobbies, it seems I always have something that I need to go along with that.

    I am not a fan of the whole adult gift giving thing outside of Hubby and I because it has become more about the obligation of the gift rather than the fun and meaning behind the gift. When you get to the point where you are just exchanging movies or gift cards, it kind of seems pointless. If it were a situation where the act of giving the gift were part of the fun (I’ve been a part of several hilarious gift exchanges), then it would be different, but you have to have the right kind of personality to actually enjoy something like that and most of the adults I know just get pissy instead of having fun with it.

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    1. The meaningful, thoughtful gift giving and receiving is of course the desirable part of it. But when I hear “Xmas shopping” for things like gift cards etc (for adults) and it’s all so obligatory, an item to check off a list… I just think it’s pointless (as you say). 🙂

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      1. We’ve gotten into this rut of basically exchanging movies with my SIL. It’s kind of ridiculous, especially when we have to specify exactly what movie we want (when we didn’t we would get some of the worst movie choices imaginable just because there was some odd them she decided fit us as a family). The whole mess around gift giving outside of my immediate family has really soured me on a lot of it.

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      1. Then there’s always that obligation to give back when you have folks (adults) who feel a need to, or just enjoy giving.
        I feel more stress with all these things, but am getting better about just saying thank you and knowing that I won’t be returning the gift giving. Maybe they will stop, maybe not, but how many times can you tell someone you prefer not to get gifts…

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  11. I’m with you on the gift-giving thing. When my birthday came around, I said much the same thing to my partner. She and the boys ended up getting me a selection of beers, chocolates and Pringles which was more than enough to keep me happy.

    And my brother, sister and I haven’t bought presents for each other for over a decade. We still buy presents for each others’ kids, of course, but that’s as far as it goes.

    We did Sint Niklaas a week early here. The local family union organises actual visits from the Sint — our slot was last Friday, when he turned up with three sacks of presents 🙂

    And now that that’s done, I need to hit Amazon this weekend for Christmas — and a couple of birthdays. I suspect that Lego will feature quite significantly this year…

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      1. A Lego room would be great. Getting the kids to put their constructions away at the end of the day would be even better.

        We have a large, low table which is supposed to be for Lego, but it really is a mess at the moment. We will have to get it cleared before Christmas.

        Like

  12. I’m not a gift person either…for myself. I’m very specific with what I want, and I’m always trying to reduce what I have. I’d rather get an experience gift if someone’s giving me something…

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