Getting Ready for Christmas?

I worked on getting ready for Christmas most of the weekend. I picked out and ordered all my out-of-state gifts online, having them shipped to the recipients in California. I had been thinking about what to give everyone for a while.

I struggle terribly with choosing gifts. It's almost impossible, when you see people very seldom, to choose an ideal gift. I know people who think they're great at giving gifts, but most of them aren't as good at it as they think they are. What I decided this year was simply not to worry so much about it - buy something nice that almost anyone can use, get it on its way, and forget it.

When I look at my blog last year, I recall my overwhelmed feeling as I struggled to make Christmas at least a little meaningful under the crush of endless shopping, events, and difficult people. This year I've adjusted my attitude and strategy - I made the necessary decisions, accepted that they can't be perfect choices, purchased the items, and now I can relax.

Saturday morning, John and I sat at the kitchen table and did all the Christmas cards. He helped me decide what to put in a letter, and we printed those. We used a Christmas address list that I keep on the computer.

The neighbor came over Saturday and asked John if we'd chip in on a new fence on one side of the house. John hired the guy to replace our worn out fence, and we split the cost of two sections with neighbors. These houses were all built around the same time and all the fences are needing replaced.

When our son comes for Christmas, his dog won't be able to pop a board loose and wander the neighborhood. As a puppy, she jumped fences, but now she's heavier and I don't think she will give us that problem. Luckily, neither his dog or ours is a digger.

This morning, this netbook that I use so much acquired a horrendous virus. I've seen this thing before - it announces that you're infected, pretends to run a scan, and wants you to buy their product. I spotted it immediately and stopped it from completely installing itself, but still, I had to work on the netbook for hours to get it completely off. There's a similar one we've had at work that I had gotten good at getting off, but this one is a bigger problem. My son's computer upstairs has yet another different but similar virus, and we still have to clean it up. Because it ran a little longer, it's more entrenched. I'll have to take his hard drive out of the computer and put it in an enclosure, then clean off the virus files, because his computer won't function at all. I was not very happy to be stuck at home doing what I so often have to do at work, but hey, I beat the virus in the end.

I also packed up the warm hats for the children in Tibet.

And, I wrapped up my stuff for Knit Natters' gift exchange next Saturday. Sorry, it's a secret!