The sooner I can get past all the preparations and obligations, the sooner I can enjoy the holiday. M's winter band concert is already behind me; it wasn't too stressful because I am familiar now with the setting and the procedure. Tomorrow, however, is the Christmas pageant. This pageant is not at our home church so I am not familiar with the building or any of the people. This is exactly the sort of thing that makes me a bit anxious. I would skip it, but the kids are participating in it. It would make me more comfortable to have ABM with me, but he has to work.
Speaking of work, poor ABM is getting cheated out of an actual holiday. Since Christmas falls on the weekend and he is normally off on the weekend, he doesn't get any extra days for the holiday like normal office workers do because his call center is open 24 hours. He does get extra holiday pay, but I feel bad that I get a four-day weekend and he doesn't.
Somehow, we ended up with Christmas lists that require more work than money this year. For instance, we picked up a new desktop computer at a Black Friday sale so we are giving our current one to the twins. (Don't make that outraged face. You know that if you were in my shoes you would keep the new computer for yourself rather than give it to a set of eight-year-olds. Besides, they've gone through two holiday seasons where they watched everyone else in the house get a computer; they'll be glad for anything they get.) This means that I need to spend some time removing all the programs from this computer that they don't need, like BitTorrent. Other gifts that require time:
--M wants to learn how to cook something other than Rice-a-Roni.
--M also wants us to have a spa day together. This is something she picked up from one of those "love your body" books that I bought her last year.
--ABM wants me to burn some CDs for him. This doesn't sound like much of a gift because he could do it himself. What he is really asking for is my time, though, because his requests have been along the lines of "Can you find me a mystery novel by a black author on audio?" or "Can you get the CD of the guy who did the music for that movie we saw?"
--ABM upgraded to a Palm Zire 72 so he is giving his Zire 71 to M, which means I get to load it up with stuff she needs. Yes, it's another cast-off Christmas gift but she will be glad to get it. Her current PDA is a Handspring Visor with a monochrome screen.
On top of all this, I am helping ABM knit scarves for his friends. We are using the Knifty Knitter looms. I know, I know -- I talked junk about these things last Christmas. I still think that the marketing is disparaging of those who knit with sticks, but I have to admit that the purple rectangular one is kinda fun. I can already see myself making afghan strips with it. Also, as a needlecrafter I have to embrace any device that makes my husband come home with THREE bags of yarn :-).
Anyway, I'm helping ABM knit these scarves to keep him from lying. He likes making hats and scarves, but he doesn't want anyone to know he is doing it. He says he is going to let his friends think that I made them. I figured I should make it at least partially true by knitting one.
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