Browsing through catalogues and catalogues of everything and nothing. Trying to get gift ideas for myself and for the family. Unlike my family, my husbands family they celebrate Christmas. Christmas for them is all about the presents not even the food. And each year they shower each other with expensive gifts. The weeks leading up to Christmas is always stressful for them as they had to find the perfect gift for each family member. I was already loosing hair over this whole Christmas dilemma way back in September.
Then the dreaded mail from the family, what do you want for Christmas? I might sound ungrateful here but hey! Just go and pick out anything from $1~$100 and I wouldn't mind at all. But now I'm not only stressed about what I should get them but as well as what they should get me.
Christmas is just 3 weeks away and I still have no clue what I want. Except maybe a ticket home in January. Then there's me and my empty purse. Christmas with the family is going to cost around CHF$1000 or more. And I'm flat broke, extra stress.
Then I think of my simple folks back home where Christmas doesn't amount to a fancy dinner or gifts. Just a day at church and a normal lunch with the family, sometimes only half the family but its always stress free and full of laughter.
Once or twice while growing up my parents tried to adopt the Christmas culture, complete with the tree, presents and a big lunch and dinner. But as soon as my younger siblings figured out that Santa didn't leave the presents under the tree, mum and dad did, gone were the trees, presents and the fancy dinner.
When I moved to Japan, celebrating Christmas or not is a personal choice. But I remembered two Christmas that really stood out. One was at my friends house; our last Christmas with half of the crew. And then Christmas 2010, we all knew that it would be our last Christmas together. So we went all out and did a huge dinner and party together at my apartment.
Now back to the problem at hand. I have 0 dollar at the moment. My brother in-law is a politician, my sister in-law is a well off lawyer and not to mention my retired well off father and mother in-law. Now I can see that I'm screwed. Because even my 3 and a half year old nephew already has everything.
And I know their gifts to me would be extravagant. Yes! I'm screwed.
My problem here is simple. Christmas shouldn't be a stressful time for us. It should be a time of miracle and blessings. With that said I really hope I get my miracle this Christmas; go through it smoothly.
Now how about some handmade gifts?
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