I'm not a big fan of Christmas. I know, I know, start the Scrooge calls now. For me, and i'm probably not alone here, the thought of Christmas is inextricably linked to thoughts of family drama that I would be quite happy to avoid. Then there's the whole gift giving thing... I'm all for sharing a thoughtful gift with someone I love. Since I travel so much, I stopped buying something for each family member on every trip long ago. Now, if I see something that makes me think of someone in particular, I will buy it and save it. When Christmas comes around, I look through the items I purchased over the course of the year and make sure I have at least one thing for everyone.

This year, my boyfriend and I decided we were boycotting the gift giving thing. Invariably, we end up with a bunch of stuff that we don't really need. A couple months ago, while packing for our trip down to see our new house, I paced around our apartment trying to figure out what we could bring down with us and got overwhelmed by the thought of what we will do with all this stuff when we move. I guess we will probably have to put some things in storage like the comfy green couch that I would definitley want if we moved back, but there is so much crap! I've been selling things on ebay, but there are plenty of other things that probably wouldn't get a high enough price but I still don't really want to throw away. Therefore, we don't want anything for Christmas except things we can use up. Belgian beers from BevMo will be accepted, gag gifts that elicit a surprise reaction when opened and then just sit on a shelf collecting dust will not.

Really, I'd prefer to just avoid the whole thing altogether. Those feelings combined with cold water have me dreaming of someplace i'd really rather be. Sure, it's more difficult to have to make a fire before drinking coffee than it is to just wake up and push the start button on the coffee pot, but the view is nicer, the water warmer, and the waves infinitely better. All I want for Christmas is to be down there...

Making coffee over an open fire