"He's not my boyfriend, all I can give him is porn or liquor!"

It is no secret that I am a Christmas junkie. I love Christmas - I think it is the only reason I survive the blistering fucking cold every year. I enjoy getting together with my family, the hustle and bustle, the extra plans, late evenings, and the Christmas movies. I love the holiday traditions and being with my family...I would even go so far as to say I enjoy the Whitmore chaos on Christmas, even though I hate it on Thanksgiving.

One of my favorite things about Christmas, is shopping for the perfect gift for everyone on my Christmas list. Year after year, I purchase gifts for my mom, my dad, and my brother. I draw someone's name in the Stacey family to buy for, and I usually buy a gift for a baby or two (there are too many babies now for me to afford to shop for them all). Other than that, I buy for a charity, this year Toys for Tots, and then from there I just pick something up if I find the right thing for a friend or someone else in my family. But I do really pride myself in my ability to buy a great present for someone. I never give gift cards, and I never buy the standard I-didn't-know-what-else-to-get gifts...you know, pre-made bath baskets or pajamas. If I am buying you a present, you better believe I am going to put some better thought into it than that.

I am also not a last minute shopper, and usually pick up my first presents early in the fall. This is, I'm sure in part due to my obsessive compulsiveness, but does also have to do with my budget, which is not unlimited. Most of the time I need to spread gifts out over a couple of paychecks, so I start early. I shop with a list and with a budget, but I do tend to stray from both if there is just something that someone "has to have" while I am hitting the malls.

Christmas can, of course, make you question some of your relationships...will it be weird if I buy you a gift? What if I buy one and he doesn't, will that be weird? Are you gonna get weird if I don't buy you something? Or what if you're having all your girlfriends over for dinner and some of you are exchanging gifts and some of you aren't, is that ok? I know that these questions cause some people major anxiety during the holidays, and I am very glad that for the most part, it all just rolls off my shoulders. If I start to get stressed out over it, I try to just remind myself that Christmas is not about stress, nor do I need to have an agenda behind my holiday shopping. If I give you a gift, it is because I care about you and because I saw something that reminded me of you and I wanted to give it to you. Don't read into it, don't make it feel like now you owe me a gift too. I don't expect gifts just because I give gifts.

I love Christmas because it gives me the opportunity to show some of the great people in my life just how much happiness they bring to me during the year, and to remind them of how grateful I am for them.