Buzzed Online shoppng and a (semi)healthy bank account EQUALS: DANGER

[FirstLight]

I have found so much CRAP for like 1.50 etc on these weird little sites, I am gonna regret it but it's so FUN! puzzles and fidgets and whatever!

Got a box today and didn't remember half the stuff in it! But stockings will be FULL of random junk! ...and it was all for like $40!

I don't know or care if it's a good or smart thing.
But mom died this year and I wanna do C-mas like she did. And my kid is bringing his fiancee home and we're gonna have a blast playing board games and stupid puzzles!

When they were younger I was dirt poor, so I had to stretch C-mas out by using the dollar store and thanking goddess for my mom and her tendency to go all-out. SO I guess this year I am forgiving myself, stepping into the role and having a ball. We cut down a tree (my roomie is from GA and this is her first REAL winter in snow) and have been decorating the whole living room...

Just wish mom and I could go shopping together one more time.

I also got some fun Bday stuff so we can celebrate in style with tacky hats...My Bday is New Years.

Anyway, I gotta get off the computer before I find any more fun stupid crap

[Phentex]

1. FL I am so happy for you!

I remember the struggles you've gone through and it's nice to hear you are in a much better place. It sounds like you are bringing joy back!

[FirstLight]

2. Thanks...

This has been a rough year since mom passed. But I've been going to grief counseling and therapy and I have a better relationship with my sister than we've had in years.

Mom would be proud to know how we're doing. And since she's now a guardian angel, I'm sure she's been pulling strings on the other side to help

[NNadir]

3. Your tale reminds me of my late mother-in-law.

The first time I showed up at Christmas when I was "just my new boyfriend" to my future wife, bringing a bottle of wine, my future mother-in-law showered me with gifts, mostly trinkets, but some good stuff as well.

I'd been with her daughter for a total of 8 weeks at that point.

It got worse after we got married especially after we had kids. My mother's-in-law shopping obsessions led us to thinking that we would never get all that stuff in the car, never mind find a place for it in our home.

We miss my mother-in-law, but I don't miss the showers of "stuff."

[FirstLight]

4. sometimes it's about the giving, sometimes it is just stuff

But after being so broke for so long, it feels good to be able to do this.

[NNadir]

5. I'm sure. That wasn't the case with my mother in law though.

She was a compulsive shopper, which she could afford owing to an inheritance and the fact that my father-in-law was a doctor, not a heart surgeon but rather an internist, but still.

She was broke when she died though.

Enjoy the power to give gifts. We had some hard times in my marriage, I was out of work for a while, and we were certainly more generous with gifts when we had the opportunity to do so.