14 Days of Festivity: Day 11

Working From Home

I think, for the most part, I stay on top of responsibilities.  Sure, I've forgotten to pay a bill a few times in my life, and sometimes I'm running to Target to buy a birthday present on the way to the party.  But usually I like to take care of things as far in advance as I can possibly remember to. 

Christmas shopping is the exception to this rule.  I always procrastinate on my Christmas shopping. 

One reason for this procrastination is that the holiday season stresses me out, and I don't want to prolong the holiday season by beginning my shopping in, say, September.  I realize this practice makes no sense, because my holiday season would probably be less stressful if I began my shopping earlier, but nonetheless I like to keep the stress contained within the month of December. 

But also, I need the pressure of last-minute shopping.  See, early in the season, when I have the luxury of time, I'm always second-guessing myself when it comes to the selection of a particular person's gift.  Like, Hmm, those earrings would be a really cute gift for Suzie.  But ... I don't know, maybe I'll find something better.  I'll keep looking. 

But at the last minute, there's no time to keep looking.  You see a thing you like, you throw it in the cart.  Bam.  Christmas is done.  No second-guessing.

Now, for me, the last minute isn't exactly the last last minute, because I have to find a way to get all my gifts out to California before Christmas.  I accomplish this transport in one of two ways: (1) Buying the gift out here and shipping it to one or more of my relatives' houses in advance of my arrival, or (2) Ordering the gift online and having it shipped to one or more of my relatives' houses.  As online shopping becomes more convenient, I'm doing more and more of the latter.

So, my last minute started this past Saturday.  And then on Monday, which was 14 Days of Festivity: Day 11, I ordered a whole bunch more stuff. 

Between that ordering, soccer, and a toy purge, I didn't have time to take Nathan out and do something festive.  Well, I did offer to take him to see Arthur Christmas, but we got into a battle regarding his refusal to eat lunch, and I said we couldn't go. 

So, in the spirit of online shopping and doing it all from home, I just decided that Day 11 would be the day I sat at home and thought about Christmas, and then wrote about it. 

I have two things to say. 

One, I am happy to report that this is the first year that I don't feel stressed out about traveling with Nathan.  He's easily kept occupied by the iPad, or movies, or some sort of coloring/activity book, so I'm not feeling like I'm going to be tense the entire flight.  Additionally, he's finally able to sit in the backless booster seat in the car, so we don't have to lug a big old carseat everywhere we go, nor do we have to install the carseat using that !@#$@% LATCH system in every single new car we ride in during our travels (including the taxi to the airport). 

That whole thing about stress-free travel with Nathan having been said, I have now jinxed myself and it will be the biggest nightmare flight with him ever, worse than the Christmas when he was still a lap child and Bill and I got our shirts covered with the meat-flavored baby food. 

On a slightly more negative note, what's the deal with the Elf on the Shelf?  When did this become a thing?  All of the sudden I'm seeing blog posts about the Elf, Elf tweets, tips for Elf ideas, funny outtakes about the Elf ... and it's like, how did this whole thing start without being on my radar at all?  I mean, I guess I saw it at Target, but I just thought it was an ugly marketing gimmick and I ignored it.  Now it turns out this is supposed to be some kind of family tradition I'm supposed to perpetuate?

For anybody else who's clueless like me, the deal, according to the official Elf on the Shelf website, is that each family gets an individual elf spy to come and watch how the children in the house behave.  You have to give your elf a name and register it online (a tradition no doubt dating back to the Christmases of old), and then every night your elf flies back to report to Santa, returning the next day in a fun new clever hiding place.  That means that parents have to remember to find a fun new clever hiding place for the elf every day. 

I absolutely see why parents would like this tradition.  Most of us have been threatening kids with Santa's Naughty List for years, and this elf spy just the threat all the more believable. 

But, threats of punishment and/or coal aside, I decided the Elf on the Shelf thing just wasn't for us.  I'd like to say I made this decision because I don't need some external threat to keep my child in line, or because I believe he needs to learn how to behave because it's the right thing to do and not because some magical elf is spying on him.  But the reality is that I love threats and bribes.  I just don't think the Elf on the Shelf is for us because I'm really bad at keeping up on these things. 

I could just see our elf sitting there for days on end in the exact same spot, because I forgot to find a clever hiding place for it.  I'd forget to put the elf away on Christmas Eve, so then I'd blow the cover on the idea that he had to go back and be with Santa.  Also I could never enforce the whole "kids aren't allowed to touch the elf" thing, because I'd end up looking the other way when Nathan incorporated it into a fort, just so I could get 5 minutes of peace to check Facebook. 

Also, the poor elf would probably get crushed by all the clutter on our shelves.