Merry Christmas

I've never been a big Christmas spender, primarily because Darling and I never seem to have "extra" around the holidays. This was especially true last year when the restaurant I worked out shut down for the last two weeks of the year, putting a choke-hold on our already tight budget. That was about the same time Darling left his job and had an $800 dental procedure...Some years, the holidays just sort of happen around us.

This year, though, something came over me. It started with the tree debate we have every year, and for the second time Darling and I went down to the lot and brought home a "real" tree. We decked it with the plentiful lights we happen to own from our last holiday splurge (2008?). What's a tree without presents? Out with Raja I saw the perfect gifts for Oblio and Baby-O, a sweet book for my niece in Ohio...and from there on out we spent at will. Eggnog, and a bottle of rum to go with it. A bottle of brandy to make amazingly delicious vegetarian mincemeat pies, a bottle of amaretto for a cheesecake recipe. Two tofurkeys, vegetarian marshmallows for hot chocolate, my  beloved seasonal teas. Gifts for Mom, Dad, Stepmom, brothers and sisters, friends and housemates purchased at local shops and the Armadillo Bazaar...I stocked up on Darling's favorite English treats (Jaffa cakes, Ribena, and Hobnobs) and picked up my Mom's fresh Turkish Delight at the Phoenicia Deli.

Darling and I spent the weekend wrapping gifts, sipping Nog, watching our favorite winter films, visiting the massive "tree of lights" at Zilker park, baking and cooking. I cut out Texas-themed sugar cookies and topped them with home-made butter-cream frosting, baked chewy gingerbread men, stewed apples and dried fruit to make the individual mincemeat pies, chopped carrots and onions and potatoes to roast and brewed endless pots of tea. My Mom borrowed our kitchen to bake her sweet potato pudding and produce her "sugar plums:" balls of ground dried dates, apricots, cherries, and sultanas glittery with a dusting of sugar. Darling soaked tvp and mashed potatoes for his cottage pie.

It was all very lovely and also fairly pricey, not to mention very concentrated so far as the season goes: the bulk of the spending, baking, and general merriment occurred in the span of a few days. Obviously, there were better ways I could have gone about the business of celebration: I could have been making gifts all year, or at least buying presents for months instead of days. But I didn't, and I'm pretty happy with how everything turned out. Despite shopping two days before Christmas, there were no crowds or frantic masses in the little local shops. The folks at the craft fair were marking down their wares, and everything was very carefully chosen for each individual.

Despite our spending spree, we're all set for the New Year. January rent was paid weeks ago, so our next big expense should stem from figuring out Darling's commute situation. He should be starting a week from now, and no one is responding to his calls for a carpool. Our worse-case scenario plan is to set him up in a sort of extended stay hotel in the hopes that he'll have better luck talking to people about sharing rides face-to-face.