Greetings from Newport Beach & West Covina, California, USA!
Photos taken on Wednesday & Thursday, December 24 & 25, 2008.
I was very careful on my budget for presents this holiday season. Ultimately I bought gifts for nearly 35 people, yet stayed within my limit of $200, the amount of the unexpected work bonus in November. In fact I did most of my shopping before December with the bulk done the week of Thanksgiving.
My job has an often frantic pace so for lunch I intentionally leave the building and almost always take a full hour. The office is within throwing distance of the South Coast Plaza shopping center and I go there at least a couple of times each week. I grab a quick meal somewhere, and then window-shop to decompress from the first half of the day and fortify myself for the second half.
Because of this routine, I found a lot of good buys very early, thus avoiding the searches for parking spots, the waits in long lines and all the other holiday-related stress. Instead my December was spent gradually distributing presents to friends and family. By the week of Christmas I barely had any gifts left to deliver. On the Tuesday evening before Christmas two friends stopped by my place for their presents with the first one visiting for an hour or so. The second guest came later and stayed for several hours.
With lots of gift wrap, bows, etc. left over from the Adopt-A-Family “wrap party”, I invited the second friend to wrap her family presents far away from her kids’ spying eyes. For the past few days my throat had an odd feeling, typically my first sign of a cold, so the mimosa became the drink of the evening, - the orange juice to fend off the potential cold and the champagne to, well… We’re adults. No excuse needed. Sometime past midnight we finished the mimosas, wrapped some two dozen presents and used up much of the wrapping supplies.
Closing out the year and keeping with my last few entries are another pair of pictures. Taking in the wee hours of Christmas Eve, the first photo shows a display unit, its contents of glass containers, liquor and barware festooned with ornaments and lights. It is a sampling of the pervasive reach of the holiday decorations throughout my home.
Meanwhile the second picture is a sequel to last year’s Christmas week photo as both were taken on December 25 and showed the trio of pine trees in the front yard of my parents’ house. This time my car is in the foreground instead of the background and it is raining although it is hard to tell in the photo. The shot is not remarkable but included for sentimentality.
Onward to 2009!
Angelo
Photos taken on Wednesday & Thursday, December 24 & 25, 2008.
I was very careful on my budget for presents this holiday season. Ultimately I bought gifts for nearly 35 people, yet stayed within my limit of $200, the amount of the unexpected work bonus in November. In fact I did most of my shopping before December with the bulk done the week of Thanksgiving.
My job has an often frantic pace so for lunch I intentionally leave the building and almost always take a full hour. The office is within throwing distance of the South Coast Plaza shopping center and I go there at least a couple of times each week. I grab a quick meal somewhere, and then window-shop to decompress from the first half of the day and fortify myself for the second half.
Because of this routine, I found a lot of good buys very early, thus avoiding the searches for parking spots, the waits in long lines and all the other holiday-related stress. Instead my December was spent gradually distributing presents to friends and family. By the week of Christmas I barely had any gifts left to deliver. On the Tuesday evening before Christmas two friends stopped by my place for their presents with the first one visiting for an hour or so. The second guest came later and stayed for several hours.
With lots of gift wrap, bows, etc. left over from the Adopt-A-Family “wrap party”, I invited the second friend to wrap her family presents far away from her kids’ spying eyes. For the past few days my throat had an odd feeling, typically my first sign of a cold, so the mimosa became the drink of the evening, - the orange juice to fend off the potential cold and the champagne to, well… We’re adults. No excuse needed. Sometime past midnight we finished the mimosas, wrapped some two dozen presents and used up much of the wrapping supplies.
Closing out the year and keeping with my last few entries are another pair of pictures. Taking in the wee hours of Christmas Eve, the first photo shows a display unit, its contents of glass containers, liquor and barware festooned with ornaments and lights. It is a sampling of the pervasive reach of the holiday decorations throughout my home.
Meanwhile the second picture is a sequel to last year’s Christmas week photo as both were taken on December 25 and showed the trio of pine trees in the front yard of my parents’ house. This time my car is in the foreground instead of the background and it is raining although it is hard to tell in the photo. The shot is not remarkable but included for sentimentality.
Onward to 2009!
Angelo
