the joy of giving.

I have a tendency to give gifts to everyone.  I give gifts to my family, my boyfriend, and my friends.  All my friends.  Not one or two close ones, but all of them.  One year, I believe I gave out 10 "friend" gifts, but this year I've knocked it down to six.  I think.  Instead of spending a ton on each of them, I spent less than $5 on each of the gifts and customized a cute and creative card to go with it (I'll post after I give them all out - I'd hate to spoil the surprise).  For the friends that I remain close with, but wouldn't necessarily give a gift to, I've decided to send handwritten cards to each of them, as they are still parts of my life and I want to do something cute and unique.  There won't be any posed pictures, or updates on what my last year has been like, but it will just be a little holiday cheer that will hopefully bring a smile to the stress of the end of the semester.

For my family, I like to give them each a little something individually.  Now that I'm on my own, I tend to be the one who picks up all the gifts, since my sisters usually are shopping with my parents around.  The three of us all go in on something for each parent (Little Brother is still too little to help with Dad's gifts).  We usually find a store-bought gift for them, something small, but then spend the day doing something of their choice, that they want to do (one year we spent the day helping my mom sort through hundreds of pictures for scrapbooking!).

Once my sisters and I started babysitting and getting money of our own, we were able to buy each other gifts with minimal help from our parents, and we didn't just have our names written in the "From" section of the tag on something Mom picked out.  Last year, I got my siblings all University of Minnesota apparel, and this year...well this year they both got some input on what they wanted for part of their gifts!  The other part I picked up at an outlet mall earlier this fall - it's been SUCH a relief knowing that my presents are done way ahead of time.

Loverman is the hardest to shop for.  There are plenty of great gift guides out there for shopping for men, and the range from a little pricey, to something more on the college budget that I happen to be living on.  (check out this one from College Prepster, for him & her, the one from Design Darling, Cupcake & Cashmere, Real Simple - they have a foosball table for $49! Love them!)  Last year I got him a DIY monogrammed flask and a blu-ray player.  One nice thing about buying for your man, is that they will (should/better) love you whether or not they loved the gift!

I hope this gives you all some ideas for future gifts!  The holidays are officially upon us - let me know if you have any other gift questions in the comments!

early starts

I have a love-hate relationship with Christmas.  I love the magic of the holidays.  Snow falling gently onto empty sidewalks, illuminated by the warm glow of old-fashioned street lamps - coming home to a house dark except for a lit Christmas tree, lighting the way to the closest light switch, one that you don't bother turning on - driving in the dark, listening to Chrsitmas music and thinking of the ones you love - holiday parties filled with laughter and good food and good friends - sipping steaming hot cocoa while cuddled under blankets in a matching set of PJs and watching a Christmas movie - perfectly wrapped presents under the tree.  All of it.  I love it all.

The actual day can be stressful, and then it's as if the pre-Christmas never quite matched up with the sugarplum images that danced through your head.  As I've been getting older and taking ever more control over my own happiness, I've struggled with how to keep myself happy throughout the holidays, instead of loving the day after Thanksgiving as the first day I can celebrate and then slowly slipping into a holiday doldrum that never meets the insanely high expectations I set.  Well this year, this year I'm doing something different.

I had a night to myself for the first time in awhile; no roommate or Loverman to keep my company, no pressing assignments or places to be in the morning.  Instead of simply binge-watching Netflix and lying on the couch lamenting I don't have food, just ingredients, I binge watched my DVDs of House and made an early start.  I sat down with my wrapping paper, scissors, gifts, and boxes, and I started wrapping.

It's no secret from my last things I love Thursday (it was on Friday) that I love gift wrapping.  With the whole night ahead of me, I took the time and I wrapped my presents slowly and perfectly and tied them with bows and made gift tags and had an absolutely low-key, creative and inspired night; taking the first step towards getting myself excited for the holidays.  It was the first step towards being at peace with the pre-Christmas struggle of expectations-set-too-high, and have a pre-Christmas that met expectations that can lead to a joyful holiday for myself and those around me.

Is my holiday going to be perfect?  Probably not, nothing really is.  But I'm going to have an amazing time.  One thing that I keep reminding myself, that has been helping quite a lot, is that when I look back to past years, I can always pick out one of the sugarplum moments - the ones that dance through my head the following year and fill me with a craving holiday nostalgia.  This year, I'm vowing to take control and keep myself in a present mindset to enjoy next year's sugarplum moments this year, as they happen.

Happy start of the Holidays! xx