Christmas presents and resolutions

We've never been a family who have spent large amounts on presents for Christmas so our decision this year to scale back even further was not difficult. We decided in the middle of the year to only make presents or buy them in a charity shop or on sale. On the whole I think that I stayed with that. My daughter Naomi made many of the presents she gave and I'm fairly certain that Emma bought hers on sale, except for her one indulgence, a car garage from Early Learning Centre for Noah.

I don't think that the choices I made of presents have changed all that much...books, DVDs, CDs and clothes. I did find it much more difficult to buy though. In the month leading up to Christmas, I read an article in the Guardian in which the writer questioned the whole notion of buying presents. Sometimes I am easily succeptible to that sort of thing and it did slow me down a bit. I began to question every likely purchase. Was I buying a certain book, DVD or CD in order to influence the tastes of the person it was meant for? Or might it even be a criticism of what I percieved their tastes to be? I think that this introspection must have happened in the lead up to my illness. I was tired and susceptible to both ideas and viruses! I almost returned the winter coat I had bought for Naomi, questioning both my choice of style and my decision that she needed a coat in the first place. See what I mean? I must have been very tired when I went through that line of thinking.

What I really wanted to do for Christmas this year was to finish the photo albums I had started for Naomi and Emma the Christmas I had cancer. I also wanted to finish off the book I had started to make of this blog and a family cook book. Out of my disappointment of not doing any of this comes my determination, one might even say, my resolution for the new year, to complete one or more of those activities. I suppose that it is a bit vain of me to think that they would like a copy of the blog but I'm certain they would like the photographs from their childhood. I had thought of scanning those but it really is nice to have a physical books and to sit some wintery Sunday afternoon and look at pictures from days gone by. Ah, there I go again making assumptions about what others would like and then imposing them! Cliff's mother (Naomi and Emma's grandmother) did that and we are now swamped with volumes of family history. Perhaps I will scan those one day!

And other resolutions, you may ask? On Facebook I said that I wanted to spend more times with friends. I will have to come up with some definite plan for that otherwise it will go the way of most resolutions. I shall start by inviting various people to Saturday or Sunday lunch or to dinner. I have other more obvious resolutions.
1. To sort out things at work so that I don't become as tired as I obviously was just before Christmas.
2. To finish one of my writing projects.
3. To write 500 to 1000 words per day.

Well those should do for a start!