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I am in list heaven!

My family loves Christmas.  Tis’ the season to shop till we drop.

Tis’ the season to give, give and give some more!

Tis’ the season to come together as a family and celebrate the season.

And so the list fun (madness) starts:

Mom starts early by sending an email to all family members requesting a list.  She wants to know what we want in our stockings.  She wants to have a list of ‘reasonable items’.  Sizes, colours, options.  Everything from big to small.  She wants a list of ‘big ticket items’.  We get to open the big ticket item at the end of the present opening mania.  She plots this item, plans carefully, gives false hints about the item.  On Christmas morning she quivers on the couch in her Christmas jammies in anticipation of the squeals of delight each of us invariably lets out when we rip open the bright paper and finally see the object of our desire.  Her and Keith (my stepfather) get big hugs and thank you’s and ‘I cannot believe you got me this’ statements … This is mom’s favourite moment of the day!  You can tell she thoroughly enjoys shopping for all of us.  We open all our gifts one at a time and enjoy each other’s smiles.  We are definitely spoiled rotten by the two of them, and each other.

R.O.T.T.E.N.

Anyways, back to the list mania:

Each member of the family in turn sends mom our list.  Then each member emails each other separately with the lists.  Then we email each other again to tell each other what we have already bought off of the others’ lists.  Then we email each other to talk of budgets and keeping things under control this year…

We then email each other to let each other in on what we plan on buying for the others.

Then I take all the lists, combine them, cross reference them and come up with a new list to go shopping with.  My sister puts hers in a spreadsheet because she is a bean counter and that is how she rolls.  Accountants, sheesh!

After the shopping we email each other again and say what we already bought so nothing gets duplicated or left off any of the lists.  Phew!  There are onslaughts of cellphone calls from loud malls saying ‘guess what I just found’, ‘do you think he will like this’, ‘I cant find her anything’, and screams of ‘help!’….

My mom will be making piles with her presents because it all has to be even.  There will be a room in her and Keith’s house that will be off-limits because I was a horrible snoop as a teenager.  The piles will cause mom ‘present stress’ because invariably someone’s pile will be bigger than someone else’s and she will go back to the mall to have a ‘little looksey’ to maybe even it up a bit.  She will probably spend more money.  She will bring her goodies home, add them to the piles and re-evaluate.  Oh oh, she will then have spent more on someone and may have to go to the mall again … it is a vicious circle!  Poor mom.  We are all so spoiled!

All in all, this is fun.  It is done with love, for love and the day is fabulous.

My stepfather Keith always starts the cleanup on the big day.  There is usually paper covering my mom’s entire living room.  Each year we all spend time going through the bags of paper looking for something that got thrown out.

And of course there will be ‘Fred’ the turkey, and Keith’s bashneeps!  Yum.

Lots of love in our family.  We are a lucky bunch!

Tradition.

Gotta.LOVE.IT!