Hi dear friends and followers, welcome to Frizzy Lizzy
"Deck the halls with a dude named Wally, fa la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la! Good morning, Debra! How are things by you today? Sure, I have some coffee! Just leave your boots by the door and pour a cup."
"I put the Danish butter cookies here on the table where I could reach them easier. They cost all of $4.00 for a 1 kilogram tin, but they are so nice to have around when things get busy before Christmas."
"So, have you finished your Christmas shopping? Really? All you have left is for Raymond? I hope that he is easier to buy for than Charley!"
"I remember when Charley had a lot of Christmas shopping to do, and it was all his fault that he had it. The way he saw Christmas back then was different from how we see it now. He was so materialistic and needing to impress his kids with box after box after box to open. I suppose that a lot of it came from his up-bringing as an only child. He was showered with gifts, but he tried to duplicate that kind of gifting with, let me count them, 12 people in his family! I mean to tell you, it was a gifting orgy!
"You don't understand? Well, Debra, this is how it was for a lot of years until his grandkids got old enough to just take cash for a gift:
"His family and I would get together over Thanksgiving dinner. That in itself was enough work for a year but he had more work all lined-up for us when he asked everyone to give him their Christmas goodies list. OK, so we are dead tired from making the dinner, "enjoying" the dinner, washing the pots and pans, playing cards into the wee hours of Thanksgiving Day, and he asks for shopping lists!
"We got lists for everyone: men, women boys, girls, even gifts for the dogs! His mama never gave a list because she knew what was going to happen. Charley wouldn't just buy a few gifts for everyone. He bought everything on everyone's lists, and more! And he bought quality gifts. If the gift was jeans, they were Levi's or better. If it was work boots, the brand was Red Wing. Blow dryers were Clairol, flannel shirts came from American Outfitters. You get the picture.
"Now I've never been stingy or so frugal that I could not give gifts to my loved ones, but I had my limits, and Charley was well beyond them. The only good thing was that it was he and not me paying for the privilege of going bankrupt while gift-giving.
"We never went shopping on "Black Friday." Too many people were out. Before I met Charley I had fun doing my Christmas shopping and I wanted to keep it that way by avoiding the biggest crowd of the year. He agreed with that. The rest was a real surprise.
"So we would start shopping early in the day of the second Saturday in December at the biggest shopping mall we could find. He would take his flask filled with bourbon with him so he could have a sip whenever we took packages back to the car. I brought mine, filled with Canadian Club. I found that to be a good idea as the day went by and the crowds got bigger. The lines moved slower at the cashier's stations, and the money just went out of Charley's pocket while credit card slips went in. As the liquor went into Charley's empty stomach, the grouchiness came out of him and that made me wonder who he shopped with between the time he split with his wife and I came along.
"Anyway, we had a lunch (with drinks, of course!) and shopped until we had almost everything for everyone as evidenced by the number of bags in the car. Spending 8 or 9 hours shopping was about the usual thing.
"We drove to his mother's and brought everything into her house because it was where everyone would gather on Christmas Eve. That was when the fun really started!
"Have you ever tried to have a life while wrapping upwards of 200 packages of all different dimensions, some in boxes, some without a box, in your spare time? Add to that assembling children's toys and getting the ingredients for a Christmas dinner together, well, can you see what's coming? It's not that I did not help him, but every Christmas I was so worn out by Christmas Eve that I got the flu!
"What do we do now? Well, Debra, life is so much simpler since his kids moved away and the grandchildren have grown. He just sends them a nice check in a family Christmas card. Cash is a nice gift. It's always the right color, always fits well, and never needs to be dusted or cleaned.
"I did change his giving habits a little bit. Each of his children and grand children that has a family gets a gift of excellent food, like a ham smoked over the apple wood, or fine sausage, or fresh Baltimore crab cakes along with the check.
"All of that materialism made me stop and examine my own motives for giving, Deb. Here's why I give gifts. I give gifts to the ones I love or hold in high regard in commemoration of the gift that humanity received on the night of the first Christmas. I believe that we received The Way, The Truth, and The Light, the Realization of Hope. Those are some truly awesome gifts. I give my little gifts that will someday wear out, fall apart, or turn to nothing to remind myself, and hopefully the one who receives that gift, of the Great Gift of Christmas itself."
"Come on over here and give me a Christmas hug, Debra. Your gift has always been your friendship, and that is truly awesome, too, Hon."
"I put the Danish butter cookies here on the table where I could reach them easier. They cost all of $4.00 for a 1 kilogram tin, but they are so nice to have around when things get busy before Christmas."
"So, have you finished your Christmas shopping? Really? All you have left is for Raymond? I hope that he is easier to buy for than Charley!"
"I remember when Charley had a lot of Christmas shopping to do, and it was all his fault that he had it. The way he saw Christmas back then was different from how we see it now. He was so materialistic and needing to impress his kids with box after box after box to open. I suppose that a lot of it came from his up-bringing as an only child. He was showered with gifts, but he tried to duplicate that kind of gifting with, let me count them, 12 people in his family! I mean to tell you, it was a gifting orgy!
"You don't understand? Well, Debra, this is how it was for a lot of years until his grandkids got old enough to just take cash for a gift:
"His family and I would get together over Thanksgiving dinner. That in itself was enough work for a year but he had more work all lined-up for us when he asked everyone to give him their Christmas goodies list. OK, so we are dead tired from making the dinner, "enjoying" the dinner, washing the pots and pans, playing cards into the wee hours of Thanksgiving Day, and he asks for shopping lists!
"We got lists for everyone: men, women boys, girls, even gifts for the dogs! His mama never gave a list because she knew what was going to happen. Charley wouldn't just buy a few gifts for everyone. He bought everything on everyone's lists, and more! And he bought quality gifts. If the gift was jeans, they were Levi's or better. If it was work boots, the brand was Red Wing. Blow dryers were Clairol, flannel shirts came from American Outfitters. You get the picture.
"Now I've never been stingy or so frugal that I could not give gifts to my loved ones, but I had my limits, and Charley was well beyond them. The only good thing was that it was he and not me paying for the privilege of going bankrupt while gift-giving.
"We never went shopping on "Black Friday." Too many people were out. Before I met Charley I had fun doing my Christmas shopping and I wanted to keep it that way by avoiding the biggest crowd of the year. He agreed with that. The rest was a real surprise.
"So we would start shopping early in the day of the second Saturday in December at the biggest shopping mall we could find. He would take his flask filled with bourbon with him so he could have a sip whenever we took packages back to the car. I brought mine, filled with Canadian Club. I found that to be a good idea as the day went by and the crowds got bigger. The lines moved slower at the cashier's stations, and the money just went out of Charley's pocket while credit card slips went in. As the liquor went into Charley's empty stomach, the grouchiness came out of him and that made me wonder who he shopped with between the time he split with his wife and I came along.
"Anyway, we had a lunch (with drinks, of course!) and shopped until we had almost everything for everyone as evidenced by the number of bags in the car. Spending 8 or 9 hours shopping was about the usual thing.
"We drove to his mother's and brought everything into her house because it was where everyone would gather on Christmas Eve. That was when the fun really started!
"Have you ever tried to have a life while wrapping upwards of 200 packages of all different dimensions, some in boxes, some without a box, in your spare time? Add to that assembling children's toys and getting the ingredients for a Christmas dinner together, well, can you see what's coming? It's not that I did not help him, but every Christmas I was so worn out by Christmas Eve that I got the flu!
"What do we do now? Well, Debra, life is so much simpler since his kids moved away and the grandchildren have grown. He just sends them a nice check in a family Christmas card. Cash is a nice gift. It's always the right color, always fits well, and never needs to be dusted or cleaned.
"I did change his giving habits a little bit. Each of his children and grand children that has a family gets a gift of excellent food, like a ham smoked over the apple wood, or fine sausage, or fresh Baltimore crab cakes along with the check.
"All of that materialism made me stop and examine my own motives for giving, Deb. Here's why I give gifts. I give gifts to the ones I love or hold in high regard in commemoration of the gift that humanity received on the night of the first Christmas. I believe that we received The Way, The Truth, and The Light, the Realization of Hope. Those are some truly awesome gifts. I give my little gifts that will someday wear out, fall apart, or turn to nothing to remind myself, and hopefully the one who receives that gift, of the Great Gift of Christmas itself."
"Come on over here and give me a Christmas hug, Debra. Your gift has always been your friendship, and that is truly awesome, too, Hon."
I hope that you have enjoyed these series of Frizy Lizzy. Hope you all liked it. Thank you again for reading, have a great weekend.
✿ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿
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