It's been a nice last few days. Did my meal planning and grocery shopping yesterday. Spent about $71 - which is slightly higher than I wanted to, but we have the means to make 8 different meals, and I'm hoping I get at least two nights out of a couple of them. So it'll likely bleed into next week, offsetting the spending there.

Talked to mom last night for a few hours. It was good to catch up, and we had to discuss the holidays. I let her know we're not coming back for xmas this year, and she took it better than I expected her to. For Thanksgiving, I gave her the option of taking a share of our time on Thursday (we visit DH's family as well), or getting us for the whole day/night on Friday... and it looks like we're doing Friday. I'm happy about that, as the running around on the day of leaves us exhausted and frankly unable to enjoy the festivities fully. But also because DH and I can spend actual quality time with her on Friday - "The Circus," as my mom calls it (my crazy family) will be at her house Thanksgiving, and it's hard to really be present with her when I'm trying to make small talk with people whom I have strained and/or nonexistent relationships with. Needless to say, I'm not close with my family. So it's much better for my mom and I if we can all hang out without distractions and such.

We discussed xmas presents as well. We're scaling back, thankfully. My mom lives for shopping and gift-giving, so they'll never go away. But she's more focusing on one small gift per person - which is great. I think I'll get her something like that as well, but also put together something a little more personal to go with it and mail ahead of time. Then it'll be a matter of grabbing something for my sister and something small for my mom's boyfriend and I think that'll be it. Not sure what the plan is with DH's family. Still not sure if he's even told his mom we're not coming home. Last year we all decided to not exchange gifts, and it was nice.

I hope I don't come off as a scrooge - it's not that I don't enjoy giving gifts. It's just so strange to me to end up purchasing generic things people typically don't need because I don't have a close enough relationship with them to understand what they really enjoy. If I literally only see and/or talk to someone 1-2 days a year, a gift seems more like something I'm doing because it feels like I should.

That being said, DH and I aren't going hard on gifts either this year. haha. Last year we didn't do gifts at all. That being said, last year we didn't have "Our" Christmas - which we typically have on xmas eve. Because we were traveling. This year, I actually plan to put up the tree and perhaps do a bit of decorating. I know we'll make a really nice dinner. Lounge around and watch movies. I think one really small gift will still be nice, or I might suggest we get a game or something we can play together as a "joint" gift to ourselves.

I'd just so much rather focus on the spirit of the holiday than the stress of the "stuff." There's so much expectation and pressure built around it. Down with the pressure, I say!