Christmas Consderations

For Christmas this year I got:

-A Garmin 200W (GPS Navigation System)
-A carrying case for it
-2 tickets to the Seattle Symphony
-Starbucks card
-A Paint-Your-Own tie kit thing
-A color changing light up little 6 inch tree
-A pocket US Constitution
-one of the PostSecret books
-a really nice jacket
-a really nice scarf
-The Nightmare Before Christmas DVD
-a framed scrapbook thing of my childhood


I really love everything I got and am quite happy with all of it. I didn't make a list to show how spoiled I am or anything, but just to take a visual inventory. During December, I would get asked, "What do you want for Christmas?" quite a bit. I never really answered because I honestly couldn't think of anything I needed.

My Mom suggested earlier in the month that we should all try to shop for less than $5 a person. That way $25 would be spent on each person. I was enthusiastic about it but no one else really jumped. Then my Dad told me that Santa was going to bring less than he has in the past ("only" about $250 a person). Only $250?! Santa felt bad for being "sparse" this year, and I just have to take a moment and pick my jaw up off the floor when I think about that.

I live in such excess it is a little appalling. I honestly would have been perfectly content seeing how creative everyone could get for $5 or $10. It would be so fun! And while I again love all the gifts I got this year, I really didn't need any of it, and considering my father's financial situation he probably didn't need to be spending that much...

Another example of the excess I live in. When I flew back to Utah after spending the summer in New York, I didn't have enough room in my bags for all my stuff, so I left a box with various items in it to be mailed to me. Through a series of complicated and unimportant events, I didn't get that box until last week (4 months after leaving NY). I remembered that my hair cutting set, athletic shoes, and knitting needles were contained in that box because I missed them during the semester, but honestly forgot about everything else. So when my belongings were finally returned to me (I got them on Christmas Eve) it was like an early Christmas! I had forgotten about so many of the things I own. It really just goes to show that they are not necessities and I can survive without them quite comfortably.



New Year's Resolution: Become more of a minimalist.


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