"Good" Christmas

I tried to be "good" this Christmas.

I tried to be less wasteful by wrapping gifts in newspapers and paper grocery bags that I get b/c I always ALWAYS forget to take the canvas ones. If anyone has ever tried cutting/folding/taping brown bags, you know what a pain in the arse it is! After I had over half the gifts wrapped (and hand-decorated by my 3-year-old), hubby drags in a whole bag full of wrapping paper tubes. Our gifts ended up looking like we ran out half way through and were too lazy to get more - or too cheap.

I carry a big purse/bag so when I went to a store and didn't purchase much, I could just shove everything in it and not have to waste a store bag. I swear, for every single (back-breaking) bag I saved, my hubby brought home and threw out three. He'd get a bag to carry his wallet if he thought about it.

I really wanted to leave the Christmas lights off until it was dark. But they look SOOO pretty all day long! Much better than regular old ceiling lights, even if we don't use the room enough to need the ceiling lights. I'd say we purposely saved energy by NOT putting up outdoor lights this year, but mostly it was just b/c we're lazy. Okay, it was totally b/c we're lazy.

I promised not to spend a bunch of money on my husband and made him promise the same. I kept my promise. He dropped nearly a grand (that we don't have) on a shiny new treadmill... for himself. I DO NOT RUN. Or walk, much. Of course then he had to splurge on me so he didn't seem selfish. I thought heck, he went overboard for both of us, I'm happy to cut back on my hubby-shopping. How come I still come off looking like an ass? It's not like I bought anything for ME, he just didn't have much to OPEN on Christmas morning. I don't think he'd trade his self-gifty simply for the unwrapping experience.

So there's my Christmas whine. Poor me. Boo-hoo. Now I can move on to contemplating a new year's resolution with which to shame myself throughout 2009.