I love Christmas. I love everything about it. I love the tree, the cookies, the songs, the presents. I love getting presents for people. However, somehow it was accepted practice for us to give to (and receive from) every single last relative in Dave’s family. We don’t really see them that often, and mostly it was fine, except that, well, it was getting to be a lot of money. It also caused some (and “some” here means “an awful lot of”) anxiety because we just don’t see them that often, and so I was stuck with either getting them something I thought they might possibly maybe like, or just getting something that I liked and pretty well assume they wouldn’t like it. Finally, this year, I gave up. I used the economy as a (perfectly valid) excuse, emailed Dave’s two sisters-in-law, and said I didn’t want to do it anymore. That all I wanted from them was a photo of their kids, and that’s all I wanted to give. They both responded in about twelve seconds saying they were definitely on board with the new plan.

I feel like I just got months back of my life. It really took a long, long time to buy all those gifts, wrap them, and send them off. Plus, we most certainly don’t need anything else. The past week or so I have been doing happy carefree shopping for my most immediate family, and I’m almost all done, and it’s great (well, ok, it’s not totally carefree, since these things still cost money).

If you are at all in a similar situation, I highly encourage you to finally take the plunge and say, “No more!” I bet the other people will be glad someone finally spoke up!