Yeah it’s a day late, but the sentiment really extends through the New Year as we shift focus to a second wave of commercialism. Theories vary on just what the origins of Boxing Day are, but nowadays it seems to be about outdoing ourselves in terms of all the spending done in the previous weeks. We drop the pretense of giving to others and just head out to the urban sprawl commercial constructs (i.e. malls) in search of deals for ourselves. Time to pick up those things we wanted for xmas and didn’t get. But don’t let my cynicism fool you, I love it all.
As I become more of a discriminating consumer in my old age, Boxing Day has morphed into Boxing Week and many bargains are replaced by the illusion of bargains. For instance, the home electronics industry seems to have played the public perfectly. It’s now believed that such incredible and limited deals will be available that it is necessary to line up in the wee hours of the morning in bitter cold, just to be at the head of the line. But it seems that in each passing year the Future Shops and the like have less and less impressive sales. So be careful out there, stores are trying to capitalize on the expectation of bargains. Patience, you must learn patience.
Anyway, today is a typical slow Sunday at my parents’ place. Dad falling asleep to football, step mom watching TV upstairs, my youngest sister off to work. All very much in contrast to the bustle of yesterday.
My nephew, at about 18 months, is still a little young to fully appreciate the spoils of the season. He and my sister Melissa slept over on xmas eve, and also brought their two cats. That briefly raised the cat population here up to 6. We did the present thing in the morning, but slept in to a reasonable time of around 9:00. My brother, his girlfriend, and her son were here for a few hours in the afternoon. Kim’s sister’s family arrived in the afternoon and stayed for the big holiday dinner. Oh, and Kim’s mom was also here as of xmas eve.
The one plus to gathering a family together is that they’re not out in public being embarrassing. Whether it’s silly antics from one of your relatives or the latent prejudices coming out in the form of shockingly ignorant, offhand racist comments, you’re just glad your friends aren’t there to see it. Of course, from all you’ve heard, it’s very much the same at their house.
My favorite is when the conversation invariable turns to how “PC” things have to be this year: no mention of specific holidays in greetings, avoidance of all things religious, etc. It’s supposedly all because the immigrants (my word, since I don’t want to repeat some of the stupid terms used) and super-liberals have hijacked the true meaning of Christmas. So it’s left to me to point out that Christians arbitrarily chose to time their celebrations with existing pagan ones revolving around the winter solstice, and much of the traditions seen today similarly have no Christian basis. But hey, it’s a losing battle whenever you try to introduce logic and facts in the face of tradition and religion. Related to my post the other day, I think “tradition” is a chief ingredient of ignorance.
Don’t you love the holidays?
But enough about that stuff, let’s talk about me and my new toys. Kudos to Michelle for the sweater. It’s very brave of someone to buy a gift not found on my Amazon wish list, and especially to do so when it involves clothes. But I love it, and am impressed with my little sister’s gift intuition. Similarly for my brother Brad. Not only did he get me a couple of DVDs from my list (National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and the new Iron Giant special edition), but also found the new Ewok Adventures disc containing both of the TV movies from the eighties. This somehow fell off my radar, but after confirming that I didn’t have it, Brad knew it was right up my alley. Santa also contributed the second seasons of Alias and Gilmore Girls to my DVD shelf, and the third season of Angel which I already have and will be exchanged for something else later this week. I also received a few books, joined the electric toothbrush revolution, and stocked up on some supplies for back in Waterloo – the perfect give for a student away from home. All in all, it was an excellent haul.
That is all for now, stay tuned for further holiday updates!
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