The holidays to survive the darkness

I know, I know, we have coal trains running 24/7 to keep us in light, but still. It's not the same when it's dark outside, and especially freezing like lately. That's why I am thankful for the holidays, and for all the wacky things that happen so that you try not to notice the late arrival of the sun, and early departure.

We had a great feast with our dry-brined bird from Donna, (thanks to Rach and Dad who dealt with it. Rach was appalled that "there were still FEATHERS on it!!!!" and so I'm sure next year it will stay at our house to be taken care of.

At my parents house there was good food, everyone was thankful, and generally we ate just a bit too much. Not too much in the way of gluttony encouraged these days, and I have to say, less is more when it comes to this.

We of course celebrated "Buy Nothing Day" but everything feels a little more surreal, as has been captured in many a Funny Times comic strip: Because we have bought so much crap we are in trouble, because we ARENT buying as much crap, we are in trouble! This is the problem with an economy that voraciously wants more, and is never satisfied. what the heck do we do about that? I'm not going to buy shit just because it might make graphs look better on the news.

What is reasonable holiday spending anyway? How do we balance our deep desire to give and fulfill others' wishes, without creating a monster (in children) or monster debt?

I bought Rowan three new (used) pairs of jeans because all of his 4T pairs look like the knees are about gone, and they are rising at his ankles alarmingly! (we keep feeding him!) And I thought, 'why shouldn't I wrap THESE up?' but instead, I put them in his drawer so he'd have some longer pants. they don't fit the concept of "present" somehow. And yet.

How did we get to be the lucky ones? I thank goodness for the abundance in our lives! Happy holidays!