christmas shopping

shopping with wax's brother is a lot more fun and social, but a lot less efficient. we wasted an enjoyable couple of hours today looking futilely for tomato peelers for wax's mom at short notice and then bought a bunch of presents for her niece instead at the last minute. we're left with almost everything that was on our to-do list for today undone. christmas is somehow horrifyingly expensive. i love picking out presents for people, the more extravagant the better, but wow, it's a lot less stressful when the money you're picking things out with is your parents' and not your own or your spouse's (and, okay, even then i feel shaky after spending a large sum).

but living in the land of christmas trees is kind of handy at christmas time. we bought a baby christmas tree for only €5 on our way home through the market square yesterday quite late, one which would be about hip-high on me. it's really charming. finnish christmas trees, not so very coincidentally, look extremely old world.

meanwhile, my parents gave me $100 usd for my birthday a while ago and told me to buy something for myself which i otherwise wouldn't have; it seems like too large a sum to spend without thinking carefully about what i want first, although in the past i have of course. when i don't have spare money it's easy to think of all kinds of things i should spend it on, but when i have it i'm paralysed with indecision. what would i enjoy the most? which is kind of why i prefer for other people to pick out presents for me.