The 'No Gift' Christmas

First, I have thank our full-timing friends Howard and Linda for the idea for this post. (Explore their adventure at www.rv-dreams.com ) In his journal, Howard went on a little 'rant' about 'zombies' aimlessly shopping for gifts at the local Wal-Mart. No joy, no thought, just mindlessly buying because that's what you're supposed to do. Howard made a plea to consider the 'giftless Christmas'.

Now, we tried this last year, with just my mom. We discussed how each year we run around trying to come up with the perfect gift, only to end up with another pair of pajamas, typically the wrong size. We decided at Thanksgiving, no gifts. Just the pleasure of friends and family for dinner, drinks and good conversation. If you brought anything, it was either to be used or consumed on the evening get-together or a little token for everyone. We brought little half bottles of wine, that we made, for everyone.

Afterward, we met up for my birthday(it really stinks having a b-day so close to Christmas!) to discuss our first 'giftless' Christmas. Everyone was relieved not have to go through the hassle of purchasing, wrapping and ultimately returning things. It was the most stress free, guiltless Christmas ever!

Now that we're full-timing, we really don't have room for 'gifts'. We also travel with everything we need and don't have many wants. What we do need, we go out and buy. Plus, we'll be flying to from Vegas this year, with Snuggles, we REALLY don't have the ability to bring anything back. So, we decided to expand the 'no gift' policy to the rest of the family. Of course, nieces and nephews excluded, because Christmas is all about kids! And we'll be exchanging gifts with Laura's dad, because they were gracious enough to put up with us for a week in Santa Barbara for Thanksgiving. And, will be entertaining us while we're home in Michigan (that has to worth something!)

Since we've been away for almost 3 month's (wow, the time flies!) we are looking forward to visiting with friends and family more then ever! Sometimes, it gets kind of lonely out on the road, and you look forward to seeing a familiar face!

We'll keep you updated here on how the giftless Christmas works out!

Happy Holidays everyone! (is that the latest PC phrase now?!)

Rich