18 December 2005

The Weekend...

"You cannot tailor make the situations in life, but you can tailor make the attitudes to fit those situations before they arise." -Zig Zigler

I chose that quote today because I DO NOT like this time of year!! And I'm trying to remind myself that I choose how I react to things.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a Scrooge. I'm not cheap. In fact, I believe that one should give to those who are in need (whether it's volunteering time, giving needed items or giving money). I've often said that if I won the lottery or something like that, I'd probably end up broke because I have alot of charities I'd donate to.

So I've been thinking about this dislike of this whole "Christmastime" thing. Maybe it started when I moved to the East coast from Southern California (you know, less sunshine in the winter here; the body not getting enough vitamin D or something). I don't know. Maybe it's just that the American Christmastime seems to be all talk and no action. For example:

1. One of the main news focuses is how RETAILERS are doing this year. I'll tell ya, if it's not: "There are fewer SHOPPING DAYS this year, so retailers aren't making as big a profit as they'd like." then it's: "Thursday's SNOWSTORM caused retailers to lose business." I'm sorry, but Christmas falls on the same date each year. Those who celebrate it know that date. How can they have less time to SHOP????
2. Shopping. People are nasty when they're out shopping around Christmas! Rude. Inconsiderate. Ready to fight for whatever the "hot" item is that year. Not to mention that most people spend ALOT of money on presents.
3. Christmas music. It's not that I don't like Christmas music. But I do not like having only Christmas music played on a radio station BEFORE Thanksgiving! That's more than a month of Christmas music! And, there are only a handful of Christmas songs that are played...they just play every single artist's version (and some of those versions are so "creative" that you wouldn't even recognize the damn song!).
4. All the RUSH. Everyone is soooo busy. The whole month of December. You have pagents, and parties and other events. Shopping to do. Cookies to bake. Trees and houses to decorate,etc.

So if Christmas is supposed to be about peace and goodwill, where is it???

Saturday, my Mom & I went to our local shopping mall (Kimberly, we went to Park City. There are also 2 "outlet" malls in Lancaster County now.). I do not like shopping. I HATE shopping at Christmastime. Don't ask why I agreed to go along, when I could have been home knitting! It took us a half-hour to get into the parking lot of the mall. Another 5-10 minutes to find an empty parking space. The stores were all crowded (and hot!). I mean, I couldn't stand anywhere without people being all around me (I really don't like crowds). One of the stores we went to had these coupons in their weekly newspaper ad. The coupon was for a certain percentage off an item. So we get to that store, find what it is we want to buy, and guess what? The coupon is not valid on toys, or electronics (and who knows what else it's not valid on!). Not valid on TOYS ...and ELECTRONICS...at Christmas! So I figure the coupon is not valid on anything people would be buying for presents. Maybe we could have used it on a Holiday Music cd or something! And then it took us another 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot. It's crazy! What's even worse, is that I lost precious knitting time!!!

On to other things...I feel MUCH better now (from the sinus thing). Thanks for the well-wishes!! It's so very nice to be able to breathe through my nose again.

Knitting. Saturday I decided that I need to knit (and felt) a bag for my friend, Terry, who will be here for Christmas (she lives in Florida - so she doesn't need a scarf). Oh! And last Wednesday, I decided to make a (FunFur) scarf for my cousin's daughter. I gave that to her Friday night.

So here's how my Christmas knitting looks:
1. Felted bag (similar to the Booga Bag, but bigger - and possibly with pockets on the inside). I have the bottom, and about 5" of the sides done.
2. Irish Hiking Scarf. This is not the 1st Irish Hiking Scarf I started (that one's for me, and is on hold til after Christmas). This one is for a present. I'm doing it in Lion Brand Suede yarn. I've done the cable 4 times on this, I have about 8" knitted.
3. Shawl. I'm hoping to finish this by Christmas for my daughter. It's (maybe) half-way done.
4. I may start a hat for my Dad. I've been trying to find hat patterns I like (and can do). I saw some hats when we were shopping Saturday, and I think I can re-create them. We'll see. The man doesn't wear scarves, and I'm not ready to try sweaters yet.

I'd also like to knit a felted bag for myself. And some of the 2-hour scarves the Yarn Harlot showed on her blog. And a hat for myself. And try some socks...you see! It never ends!

(one of these days I'll play around with this blog to figure out how to get pics and stuff on it!!)

Well, I have to get back to my knitting. Thank you for "listening" to my Christmastime rantings...and MAKE it a great day!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I just love Christmas time, but I do agree with you on some things. Yes, it comes every year in December so why don't people realize this?? I've been done for a week now, but I'm anal about getting things done on time, so why does everyone have to stress? Also here in Germany they put out Christmas candy in September!!! Can you imagine?? I tried to avoid looking because it's just too horrifying to see Christmas candy on sale in September!
I still love Christmas time, though.
Oh Park City, I used to live there! Oh those memories!
You need to ask Santa for a digital camara!