Thoughts from the Hide-out

Here I am, home again after spending a lovely day at my sister's house yesterday. There were eight people, one dog, a lot of good food and drinks, and a lot of talking and laughter. I took my camera with me and thought maybe I'd share a couple of photos today, but once I got there I never gave the camera another thought. Guess what - It turns out that just physically having a camera in the same building with you doesn't result in photos. Really! You actually have to take the thing out of the case and point it at stuff and press some buttons. Sheesh! Who knew!! Today I plan to hide out in my house because I have no desire whatsoever to be on the road with the hoards of mad shoppers determined to find bargains on Black Friday. Which, BTW, I've always thought was a terrible name for a Day After a Holiday Day. I understand where the name comes from - retail going into the black in their accounting books because of so many sales that day - but it makes me think of the Black Plague, or of funerals or something. I find the name very morbid sounding. I've never liked the name Boxing Day either. Again, I get where it comes from, but when I hear it the first thing I always think of is people hitting each other! Bleah! Anyway... I tend to practice major shopping avoidance between Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. The extra traffic and crowds wig me out just a bit and leave me feeling claustrophobic and grumpy. I always try to get some of my gift shopping done before Thanksgiving and will do at least 80% of the rest of it by ordering stuff online and having it delivered to my front door. The UPS man knows my name well. :-) I used to try to get all of it done before Thanksgiving, but found that didn't work out so well for me because the few times I'd be in the stores during that last month between holidays, I'd find things I couldn't resist because they'd be perfect for this person or that one, and I'd end up overspending. So now I do some of my gift buying early, but leave room for those surprise finds toward the end too, when I'm unavoidably fighting my way through the crowds in the coming weeks. For those of you who celebrate Christmas, are you one of those people who has everything bought, organized, and wrapped before December ever arrives, or are you one of the people frantically scurrying around the stores on Christmas eve (or somewhere in between)? Do you do any (or all!) of your shopping online these days or do you have to see and touch what you're buying? Or maybe some of you are ambitious and organized enough to make creative gifts for everyone on your list instead of buying them. (Show offs!) Am I the only one hiding in my house today?? Here's today's Daily Art Thang: "Green Spires" (clickable)