Journal Red Warrior's Journal: Feliz Navidad 2
From the bottom of my heart.
(doing housecleaning
Good christmas at the Warrior household. which is probably the only house on the block decorated in humbug fashion.
The eve was spent at my X's house, with my son. We opened presents last night, and he was very happy with his loot, especially his flat panel LCD TV. (Their old TV had given up the ghost a while back, and they had been using a borrowed 9" one for the time being). I was very happy that I didn't go overboard with the presents this year. I have a tendency to treat his wish list as a shopping list. I think it's a large part having had some sucky Christmases growing up, with just a dash of divorced father guilt. Of course, that leads to a bunch of junk that doesn't get played with much. Not this year. The TV (yeah, it cost, but it was ONE item, that will get used. And it counts as the X's Christmas AND birthday.
Something like 10 gifts less than I got him in prior years.
Of course, with his mom, both sets of relations, etc, etc, he is still coming away with quite a haul.
(I really am trying to work on the not buy him stuff out of guilt thing)
Following that, we combinded gifts in order to watch the 1st disk of JLU.
Woke up in the morning to see what Santa left overnight. He left me a clock with japanese numerals. Something that I had been casually been looking for for years. Handmade by my son. with a maker's mark on the back and everything.
(other loot, not sucky, not exciting. Though showing thoughtfulness on the part of my son. And willingness to play along on the part of my X.)
The X and son left for Mass, where he had volunteered to be an alter server/boy/whatever they are called today. Based on a follow-up call, turns out he was the only one who showed.
Killing time right now, waiting for the X and son to get up here. So they can follow me to the RW_matrilineal_extended_family Christmas gathering. 'twas a bit of a surprise when I found out they were coming (this morning on the way out the door), as the X had indicated "not" before. Made a frantic call to my mom to verify there would be a present under the tree for son. There will be.
THAT is another change that has been made to the Christmas regimen over the last couple years. In the past, the extended family thing was a full-blown everybody gets all their gifts main-event type thing. That has changed to a each child has one (the number on the whole number scale between 0 and +2), and only one, gift under the tree. Each adult brings one, and only one, gift into the house for a white elephant-type thing. Each adult leaves with the same number of gifts they entered with. All other gifting is done on your own time, and elsewhere. Cuts way down on the silly "obligation" gifts. And the stress they engender. Especially when one branch or twig of the tree is doing markedly better/worse than the others.
Of course, since I had been told that son was not attending, I had not ensured that there would be a present under the tree for him, and gave all mine already. However, a quick call, and he will get one of his gifts (from my sister) earlier than he would have otherwise.
Following the family thing, I will swing by Talinom's place for some further cheer. After which I will return home, where my son and X are spending the night before heading over to eastern washington to spend after-Christmas with X-BIL (He's a priest, coving 3 parishes and thus Christmas per se is not the best time to hang out with/for him.)
And the nifty bit? Next year I get to have my son for Christmas.
Merry Christmas (Score:2)
Sounds like things went really nice, and next year looks even better.
Merry Christmas to you and yours. :-)
y Prospero Año Nuevo! (Score:2)
Family Christmases are nice, but I have to admit that I'm *really* glad for my very low-key, soon-to-be-exHubby & kids ONLY holiday this year. Sometimes it's nice to be around my mom (she keeps the kids VERY entertained), but I doubt I'd still be hangin' around in my jammies at 3 pm if she were here.
In any case, a very Merry to you!