Our destination for Christmas was my mom's house, in Sonora, CA. Instead of flying (airport was closed anyways), we drove. This saved some money and maybe made the trip into a more of a vacation. After driving for two hours to get out of metro Portland, and uninstalling and reinstalling tire chains twice, we were finally in sunny (sort of) Redland, CA!
Then we had KFC buffet! (I had never seen one of these) somewhere near Chico. After Sonora, was San Jose, and then back up through Crescent City to avoid the chains and see the coast in the winter.
(the coast was too rainy for a camera, but this is Grant's Pass, OR)
Overall, Christmas did not include any extravagance, but was none-the-less very Christmassy and spirited. A lot of cookie making, a day or two of sitting around with no schedule, and really good home-made meals. The sitting around especially reminded me of Christmas, and you can't get more free than that.
Christmas dinner was the simplest I'd ever had--fried chicken from Safeway, pasta salad, and whatever was in my dad's fridge--and it still did the job.
Christmas night, we continued the tradition of going to the movies- not particularly cheap, but student id's helped.
New Years Eve was at Justin's friends' house, one with no TV (gasp). But a board game turned out to be more fun. Expenses for that night was only $6, really bad champagne. Believe it or not, I did end up feeling "new" and different the next day.
I got a call from my mom that the decorations I had given her had begun to fall apart the day after New Years. That's great, I think. Less stuff to keep track of all year.
I, also, had a nice time scooping up all our decorations and plopping them in the recycle bin, where I got them. I'm sure it was much nicer than dragging a tree out to the dumpster.
9. advencation (adventure/vacation) down to CA10. cookie making 11. sitting around 12. sitting around! 13. movies 14. $6 champagne
As the graph shows, and as I had predicted, the amount of money spent during the holidays does not substantially effect the amount of spirit achieved.
I will be absolutely sure to never spend $1556.18 on stuff for Christmas ($475 Billion divided by US population) because I have learned it will not make a difference!
However, I will try to remember the cheapest, and especially the free-est, means to joyous holidays:
-driving around empty streets on Thanksgiving
-cheesy Christmas music on radio
-decorating with stuff I would have thrown away (and then throwing it away)
-using red & green anything, not necessarily new
-crafternoon
-home-made (not under pressure) gifts
-glitter
-cookie making, and give them away!
-sitting around
-adventure drive
-countdown with someone
For further discussion:
Small, collapsible tree. I haven't yet found one small or collapsible enough. No more sticks!
Making a holiday dinner with what's already in your fridge.
Thank you for experimenting with me! Til next year. . .
The real thing! At the Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, on the way back.
1 comment:
you did a good job. i will miss this blog. Counting down was fun. We counted down twice that night =0)
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