{"id":496,"date":"2009-07-29T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-29T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=496"},"modified":"2009-07-29T04:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-29T08:00:00","slug":"christmas-shopping-is-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=496","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Shopping Is Done!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family:verdana;\">I hate shopping.  I really do.  I do not like crowds, salespeople, or browsing.  When there are things that I have to get, I make a list, and either find it on-line at a good value, or buy it in a store.  Go in, get it, pay, get out.  Period.<\/p>\n<p>I definitely do not fit the gay stereotype of enjoying shopping.  Yuck.  I have lots of other things I would rather do with my time.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, I was pleased when I completed my shopping for Christmas 2009 already.  There&#8217;s one good thing about a large family &#8212; we do not buy Christmas presents for each other, else lead to personal bankruptcy.  I have about ten people I buy presents for, including my partner, my aunt, my mother-in-law, and a few special senior friends.  That&#8217;s it.<\/p>\n<p>Recently I made some time to go to a card shop and bought the cards for my annual gift for the <a href=\"http:\/\/bootedharleydude.blogspot.com\/2008\/12\/gift-for-elderly-loved-ones-who-dont.html\">card organizers for seniors<\/a>.  Birthday cards, anniversary cards, and a few general all-purpose cards for special occasions that may arise.  I carefully stored the cards away at home in a safe place.  I will organize them come December, but don&#8217;t have to get out into the crowds during the busy holiday buying season.<\/p>\n<p>I have also purchased a few items via the internet.  Those items arrived last week, and also have been carefully tucked away.<\/p>\n<p>My partner insists that he doesn&#8217;t want a present.  He never really had a childhood Christmas where the kids tore open the presents and played with toys all day.  Christmas, to him, is rather quiet and he calls it peaceful.  Therefore, what I bought for him, which is a surprise, is something that is &#8220;peaceful&#8221; and that I know he will enjoy.<\/p>\n<p>Well, anyway, all of my Christmas shopping is done.  I will be happy come December when everyone is fretting over needing time to go shopping, dealing with crowds, long lines, and items being out of stock that I can sit back, bake breads, and try to relax a little bit.  That makes my Christmas that much more joyful.<\/p>\n<p>Life is short:  plan ahead to relieve stress!<br \/><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I hate shopping. I really do. I do not like crowds, salespeople, or browsing. When there are things that I have to get, I make a list, and either find it on-line at a good value, or buy it in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=496\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}