Well, this week isn’t going exactly as I planned. I had hopes of adding a lot more paintings to our shop and sneaking in a few more blog posts while we celebrate our anniversary this week, but I have been down for the count. Â My body is not reacting the best to my new medication and I have been sick, sick, sick. Â The good news is, I think I am on the rebound. Â I think. Â Every day I feel…different, but my doctor assured me that it is normal and will just take some time to adjust. Â So while we haven’t been painting or planning Greta’s big-girl room, Â (yes, that’s next on the agenda!), Chris has taken off work and we have got a lot of chatting in–which has been wonderful. We have talked kitchen plans, which we hope to tackle at the beginning of the year, how we should put up (but not turn on) our exterior lights before it gets too cold, and the frequently mocked and forgotten Christmas budget. Here’s how that conversation went down:
J: We need to talk about our christmas budgets for each other.
C: Okay, your budget for me is $100, my budget for you in non-existent.
J: No, really, let’s set a reasonable, equal budget for each other to stick to. $100 each sounds perfect.
C: There is zero chance I am spending less than $350 on you for Christmas.
J: $250. Max.
C: There’s no way I’m spending less than $350
J: Well then you can’t go over that.
C: I might go a dollar or two over it, but I won’t blow it completely off.
pause. pause.
C: That’s $350 worth of things you’ll open up Christmas morning.
J: What does that even mean?
C: I don’t know…maybe something will sneak in before christmas comes. Â Hard to say. I’m not a fortune teller.
Le Sigh. Good thing he keeps me laughing. How do you handle Christmas budgets? Do you find that one of you always tends to go way over budget?!  For us, it is Chris. Every. Year. Or maybe the word, “budget” doesn’t even enter the your mouths this season. Do tell!
(The above photo is an outtake from last year’s holiday family photos. Â It makes us laugh every time we see it.)
I ALWAYS go overboard on my Mom. To me, she just deserves everything she could ever possibly want or need – especially now that I’m married and we have a two income family (with no kids) and she lives by herself. I feel like I should repay her for all the awesome, selfless things she’s done for me over the years. The Hubs and I are pretty good about not spending a lot of money on each other. There’s usually one or two things we specifically want and get for each other and then we get something for our house.
I really wouldn’t be complaining!
So I feel a little odd writing this…having never met you…but when I went to check your blog today and didn’t see anything yet, my immediate thought was ‘Oh! It’s their anniversary – I hope they are celebrating!’ than my second thought was…’Wow – this is mildly crazy, remembering strangers anniversaries’ (though only from your blog post two days ago.) So from a self-diagnosed crazy reader, a very happy anniversary to you and your husband!
I, personally, hope to get to that point one day–the whole, go on a gift together for each other or for the house. We have limited Greta’s gifts to five, which seems to be working formula of things she needs and would like. I love hearing about different traditions around the world.
Thank you!