Gifts and fire.

I don’t really like the gift giving part of Christmas and this year I have an opportunity to not buy very many gifts, so I’m not. It is exhilarating! But I’m part of a few white elephant/secret santa exchanges and I like to buy everything early, like the first week of December. But oftentimes, the rules change about which method of gift giving a group wants to do and, like I do every year, I’ve messed up. (What can I say – I want to not feel rushed and I like free, slow shipping.) I honestly tried to get people to agree, but they weren’t ready yet around Thanksgiving. I’m not bold? imposing? bossy? enough. So on Dec 1st, I went with last year’s rules and bought a few beautiful gifts (which was white elephant – recipient unknown) and then the rules changed (secret santa) and now my gifts are not appropriate for the name I drew. Oh well. I will save the gifts for another time.

One of my favorite parts of the holiday is the open fire part. Vince and I have a candle ritual which I’m hoping to implement when he gets home (Saturday!). I ordered all the special candles for all my spinning holiday decor and the menorah. This year, I had time to polish the menorah! Unbelievable – it polishes up nicely. I did not let these candles burn down. Just for dinner and the moments I could be around the table. The wooden one has a tendency to stop spinning and burn the fan leaves, there are already a few scorch marks from when I wasn’t paying attention. And it’s just freaky to leave this much open fire unattended.