Gifts
Holiday Greeting!
Dec 25th
Ah, the joy of Christmas morning! I don’t care how old I get, I still enjoy the ritual of Christmas morning. In my family, it starts on Christmas Eve, when one gift — always Christmas pajamas — is unwrapped. Yes, I’m 25 and I still insist my parents get me holiday pajamas!
For Polish families, Christmas Eve is the big celebration. So my dad, who is 100 percent Polish and first-generation American, and his siblings opened all their gifts on Christmas Eve. His family would celebrate Wigilia, the traditional Polish feast, the night before Christmas and then relax on the actual day. Wigilia dishes include pierogis and fish courses.
Our Christmas Eve tradition is going out to dinner, either preceded or proceeded by Mass. Then we all bring all the presents downstairs and arrange them under the tree, fill the stockings and head off to await Santa Claus’s arrival.
And now, as all the presents are unwrapped, we look ahead to a yummy meal shared with friends and family. As I read John’s blog the other day, I started to get hungry for some holiday desserts, so I am definitely looking forward to some yummy goodies this evening. Particularly my mom’s Christmas cookies!
And, happily, the celebration will continue on Sunday, when we celebrate the Christmas holiday with the other side of the family. Good cheer is more fun when spread out!
I hope Santa Claus was kind to each of you this year and I wish you the happiest of holidays!
– Kimberly Krol, eFlyer editor, circulation and public relations executive
A Christmas Stable
Dec 24th
Although it is Christmas Eve, it remains a fact that many people are still rushing around in search of the best Christmas gift. Although I try my best to get all my presents early and put a lot of thought into it, I still somehow always leave some presents until the very last minute.
I can remember the most special Christmas present I received as a child. I was passionate about horses, and one of my favorite hobbies was collecting Breyer model horses. I loved how they each came with their own name and stories. When I was in the third grade, I got a hand-made toy stable for Christmas. I’ll never forget the big red bow on the stable’s roof, and I’ll never forget my reaction when I saw it under the tree.
At the time, of course, I never knew what it took for my mom to get me that stable. Later on down the road, I learned that my mom had made frequent stops at the toy store and paid for the stable little by little until it was finally paid in full — just in time for Christmas morning!
I played with the stable every day when I was growing up. I plan to pass it on to my children one day. The stable is simple and beautiful. Whenever I look at it, I think of my mom going into that toy store every few weeks to make another payment.
This holiday season I hope everyone remembers that it is the thought that counts!
– Courtney Centeno, account executive
Holidaze
Dec 18th
Is it really just one week away from Christmas? Where has the time gone? It feels like just yesterday it was Dec. 1, and now here we are staring down the holiday.
The GT staff is getting in the holiday spirit today, celebrating our annual holiday party this afternoon. The luncheon is always a good time, with yummy food, lots of laughs and an entertaining gift swap. This year we are holding the event at Jericho National Golf Club, and we have staffers coming in from New York City, Connecticut, Boston and, of course, Pennsylvania. And, thankfully, we never have to deal with those work Christmas party nightmare stories you often hear about this time of the year.
I am dreading heading out to finish my Christmas shopping this weekend. I know the stores will be packed and the lines will be long, but I have no choice. When else will I finish up? Not only will I have to battle crazed, frantic holiday shoppers, but I will also have to battle an impending snowstorm. The unpredictability of this storm makes me nervous. As I watched the weather this morning ,the local meteorologist couldn’t pin down the amount of snow we could expect. It’s either between 1-3 inches or between 5-10 inches.
So my plan is to wait and see what Mother Nature brings us tomorrow. If the weather turns out to be quite white, then I plan on spending the day baking and finishing up my Christmas cookies. I made chocolate chip banana oatmeal cookies the other night and shortbread cookies last night, but I still have a chocolate peanut butter cookie, a chocolate hazelnut cookie and raspberry linzer tart left to make. And then, hopefully, I can battle the rest of that shopping list on Sunday!
Happy Holidays!
– Kim Krol, eFlyer editor, circulation and public relations executive
Ad Assault
Dec 12th
I don’t know if I can take it anymore. They’re everywhere, and each day brings a fresh assault. Stuffed in my mailbox, folded inside each issue of the local newspaper, blaring from the T.V. and radio, filling up the inbox of my email. I’m speaking, of course, of all those catalogs, advertisements and “special, bonus coupons” urging me to take advantage of incredible offers and ”the lowest prices of the year.”
It happens every year, surely, as retailers try to end their year in the black and move as much inventory as possible as consumers cross items off their holiday gift-giving lists. And while I would say that I’m pretty sure this year we have gotten fewer and smaller print catalogs from some retailers such as Lands End, Coldwater Creek and Victoria’s Secret who traditionally have sent out a book a week from November ’til Christmas, everywhere else the flood has increased in volume.
It’s understandable, of course, considering the bleak season for merchants last year and their hopes to end this year on a high note, but it’s all feeling rather desperate to me. According to one ad I heard last night, one company has decided one Black Friday wasn’t enough this year; they’re having one each week — but on Saturdays, instead. And we saw how the Black Friday sales began well before the day after Thanksgiving this year, and online sellers spread their Cyber Monday over a week or more of special deals and free shipping. Now it isn’t just the Friday or Sunday papers stuffed with pages and pages of ad inserts from retailers one never hears from the rest of the year. Virtually every day of the week come notices of one-day sales and early-morning doorbusters and sheets of special coupons offering additional percentages off of other coupons. It’s all really starting to get to me.
I am not a shopper. I don’t have the time or the patience to meander the malls or boutiques just hoping to stumble on something I don’t really need but can’t live without. I go with a list of what I’m looking for after checking to see who might offer the best price, get what I came for and leave. Sure, I’ll browse and windowshop a bit, but I can’t spend hours doing so, nor do I have the time to go through all those ads or the space in my head to keep track of the zillions of special deals available for three hours next Tuesday.
But the sum effect of all those ads and promos this year is really beginning to wear on me. What if there really IS something in all that newsprint that might be just the thing for my daughter/sister/husband? Perhaps that electronic item IS within my budget if I’d only check every ad in print or online and found the right coupon or rebate offer to apply to it. Surely in that enormous mountain of paper piling up in my recycle bin there is SOMETHING I WILL REGRET MISSING OUT ON!!! Oh, the horror! Oh, the wasted opportunity! Oh, the ten dollars I might have saved!
I’m not sure my frazzled nerves and fragile psyche can handle any more. Perhaps I should let my husband sort through the paper and the mail each day and remove all those urgent messages of irresistible savings before I can see them. I’ll turn off the T.V. and radio and just zone out to holiday tunes and New Age harmonies. I’ll unsubscribe to and designate as “junk” all the online retailers who dare to tempt me via email. Then I’ll be safe . . . at least until all the after-Christmas sales.
– Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader
