HOLIDAY EXTORTION!!!!!!!!!!!!! This and Valentine's day.
Okay, I didn't grow up celebrating xmas (grew up a Jehovah's Witness), but now that I no longer have faith in any deity, I just sit back and observe and I must say, these holidays can be very stressful times for some.
I will buy my girlfriend something because I feel like it, and I may buy some of her family something (large family by the way). I buy them something (except my girlfriend) because I know they will get me something. Same thing goes for my step-sister and her family. They always get me something, and I always feel guilty that I don't get them anything, particularly since I don't know them all that well.
My own parents - both sets - don't get anything, which is cool because I don't expect anything from them. I've given them cash ($200 to my step-mom, $500 to my mom) and they gave it back to me.
And I HATE SHOPPING!!!!!!!! 20x worse during the holidays.
Here's my bottom line: when my grandmother was alive, one of the greatest influences in my life, I asked her many years ago what she wanted for Xmas. She said simply, I am 70 years old and there is nothing in the world that you could buy me that I want. All I want is my family to be together and around me on Xmas.
Now that she's gone, I now realize how valuable that statement and those feelings truly are.
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