The Day after Christmas...

Above is my favorite gift this Christmas from Kent. You know I'm going to enjoy this one... Because I can put together a super night. I've had a few ideas. So far I'm thinking of some kind of theatre, dinner at the Lincoln Cafe in Mount Vernon and then some kind of dancing at a ballroom... Very exciting. I actually got tears when I read them. Kent and I decided to do stockings this year but then Kent got fired- I ended up doing most of the stocking/presents work. To make up for it Kent included four coupons in my stocking- the one above, two for massages with soft music and candlelight, and one for a dinner at home of my choice with soft music, romantic atmosphere at the kitchen table with place mats, ect. We had a very relaxing and loving Christmas as just the two of us.

This was the first Christmas that I didn't see my family since I was abroad in Italy. Therefore, my family and I sent gifts in the mail to each other. This turned out to be somewhat of a fiasco. Things got mailed to the wrong addresses and things were consequentially double shipped. Also, shipping on gifts turned out to be just as much if not more than the price of the gift alone! Also, I'm very confused about return policies and return shipping. Will I have to pay for this too? Maybe in the future I will just send gift cards and/or money. Now I understand why my aunts and uncles just sent us money growing up. Everything turns out to be very complicated.

I have today, the day after Christmas, off. I know I need to avoid the stores. There are a lot of things I need to do over this break. On one hand I feel restless to do things and on the other I feel just a little too lazy to do them. Maybe I just don't really want to do the things I need to do and I want to do funner things like go see the movie Rent. That brings me to another problem- I need to stay away from another thing I like to do: Shopping. I can't spend any more money.

That's a problem with Christmas. It reminds you how much fun it is to shop. Then the stores have even bigger sales after Christmas to capitalize on this fact. You spend a lot of time shopping for other people and looking at things that you hope to get for Christmas without getting them for yourself. Then Christmas happens and you don't get the things you saw for yourself and then you somehow feel justified in shopping for yourself after Christmas and you've already spent too much anyway! This holiday has a serious darkside. For example, I decided I wanted an ipod for Christmas. Instead of buying me an ipod Kent bought me some very lovely black pearl with little diamond earrings. Now I want to go buy myself an ipod. Would I want an ipod so much if it wasn't Christmas? Probably not because I know that I can't afford such a luxury. Its alright though because I know my birthday is coming and Kent will have a new and better job by then and we will be alright.

I do think it was really very heartless to fire someone right before X-mas. What if we had kids? Think about how hard that would have been. Kent was really counting on his paychecks this month. How cruel. Kent has only been written up at his work one time and was one of the hardest workers this restaurant had. He didn't do anything that warranted immediate firing: he didn't steal, work under the influence, harass anyone, ect. He simply did what he understood to be his job as a manager. Kent simply made too much money there and the establishment was entering the slowest season of the year. However, Kent seems happier without this job. I just hope he can find a job that makes him happier to replace it. So everyone, give us your prayers, we need them. It may be hard to find a job with a move so close on the horizon.