For me, Christmas isn't stressful. Yes, there's often a lot to get done and no time to do it, but that's kind of thrilling. It's a good opportunity for my husband and I to practice our teamwork skills. It's about the challenge and the energy, the bright lights, sunshine (or snow, I love snow) and magic. It's about massive gatherings of people, and community spirit. And that's one thing where I don't agree with Princess's opinion. You couldn't celebrate Christmas on any day of the year - because you can't truly celebrate it alone. I would know - the majority of my holidays I do have to celebrate alone, because normal people don't even know they exist. And they are deeply spiritual and meaningful to me, and they do often involve gifts and decorating, but the same level of excitement isn't there and it never will be, because the energy raised by one person is never as great as that which is raised by a whole community moving towards the same day with expectation/joy/excitement.

Anyway, even after my family left and we finally got off skype (on Christmas our time, not skyping in for theirs) with the in laws, Obi and I just hung out for a while, cleaning up the massive mess, assimilating new stuff into our cramped space, reading instructions that came with gifts... let me take this moment to again express how much I freaking love this yogurt maker Obi got me. Lucybelle's told me 100 times to make my own bloody yogurt and stop paying stupid prices from the store and now I finally can! I'm making my first batch tonight after Owile goes to bed. This shit's going to change my life, I just know it!

We made ourselves a small healthy dinner of Caesar salad and prawns (Which we had to cook and cool ourselves, because of course I'm not supposed to get them from the deli ) had some family time and then once the baby was shipped off to bed I left him to enjoy Chris's gift of battlefield 4 and I gave myself a $1 kindlebook and retreated to the bathroom. Generally, I hate baths. I'm a shower person, but I got this lovely kit from my MIL and though "why not?". OMG it was amazing. Maybe there was something wrong with my brain before, or maybe I just appreciate quiet time differently now I'm old (ie now I'm a parent) but whatever the case, I discovered I need to make time to do this more often. And afterward, I was just soooo soft. The foot rub Obi gave me afterward didn't go astray either

So the day ended and I had this sense of peace and luxury, and excitement about life and huge HUGE appreciation for the people in my life. And I know I sound like a lemon, but it was just wonderful. I was actually really disappointed the next day, because it was all over.

My in laws were all "but boxing day sales!" but we don't really have them here. It's a public holiday, most everything is shut. When I lived in Canada I was amazed and appalled at how people rushed out on boxing day to return gifts they hated and use the money to buy drastically reduced... anything. I swear! Everything goes on special. And I like sales as much as the next person, don't get me wrong. But there's this sense of wrongness from the boxing day madness. I'd never dream of returning a gift before I went to Canada - we don't get "gift receipts" here - In my small world, people buy you stuff you like and the only time you'd exchange it is if it didn't fit. Anyway, I think the "wrongness" comes from the fact Christmas was yesterday. Why oh why do you need even more stuff? It just boggles the mind. Shouldn't you be home with your hang-over?

So, there's the rambly version of what Zephii thinks an acceptable amount of Christmas consumerism is! I bet it makes me break this blog in half. >.<
Thanks for reading. Bring on the new year!!