Yes, I'm Ready for Christmas

Every year it's the same questions leading up to the big day: Are you ready for Christmas? Have you finished your shopping? It's a lot easier for me to just say yes than to explain that I don't celebrate Christmas and I actually do very little shopping.

Just this morning as I was feeling that awful compression that comes with a mammogram, the technician was trying to make small talk to distract me from the unpleasantness of the whole procedure. She told me in great detail about her final trip to the mall just in case there was one more present to buy. GROAN – please just let me breathe and make this machine let go of me!

Even as I got my teeth cleaned on Wednesday, the hygienist told me the details of her last-minute shopping and her anxiety over whether AMAZON.COM would deliver on time.

At one time in my life I too was caught up in this list-making and trips to malls with angry scenes in the crowded parking lots. But I can truthfully say I have not been in any mall since Thanksgiving and I'm probably a lot better off for it.

Here's the sum total of my shopping this year: I bought my friend Reya a kipa and a mezuzzah at the Judaica shop of Temple Micah. I bought Quentin a bottle of Belgian ale so he can continue to maintain that layer of "padding" that helps him in his PT practice. My daughter got a gift certificate to REI for Hanukkah. My son got an interest-free loan to tide him over until he starts to collect a paycheck as a lawyer in California. My husband and I didn't give each other gifts, opting instead just to light the candles each night of Hanukkah.

I love the fact that when I leave work today, I won't have to come back until Tuesday. I love the fact that my husband and I will join up with our good friend to go out for dim-sum (with the Asians and all the other Jews) on Christmas day and then we may take in a movie. By that point, the whole world ought to be sighing a big relief that they all made it to THE DAY, where they gave, received, and ate turkey. But some of them will already be worrying about the returns and looking ahead to re-gifting opportunities.

So, yes, I am ready and I am finished with my shopping. I'll just leave it at that.