Has gift giving become an obligation?

In a recent IM conversation with my cousin, I started to wonder "has gift giving become an obligation?". Since when? I remember a time when gift giving wasn't an obligation and it wasn't something you did in order to see what you can get out of it.

Both my husband and I have large families. I'm talking huge! It's roughly around 35+ people (and those are only the ones that live in the same state as I do). My husband's family, it's right around 14 (and I'm excluding the cousins, aunts and uncles here).

I've always been a big fan of just doing a Christmas dinner and not exchanging gifts. Let's be realistic, you "can" in a sense purchase gifts for those 40+ people, but what's going to be your budget limit? 10 bucks? What kind of sucky gift are you planning to give?

It's the holiday season... woopteedoo...

Aren't the holidays great? Let me take you through my holiday shopping day at Target. As I'm pulling in I find great parking right in front of the doors... nice!

As I walk through the doors, I head right over to get my shopping cart. When I pull out the first one....what the heck something's wrong with the wheel.... Let's put that one on the side and grab a second cart..... drat same deal :-/ My third cart, awww this one's a keeper. First stop, video/dvd/music. I'm not in the aisle 3 minutes when I realize, I have to tinkle. sigh.

After I duke it out with another cart, I'm heading down the aisle and I brace myself for the aisle of he**. The Toy Section. The good thing was I didn't have to deal with the toy section, I was done toy shopping. I was just amazed with the array of people in the toy section. Toys are everywhere. There whiny adults, whiny teens, whiny kids....the occasional screaming match between a couple about a toy. Quick! Let's leave this section now!

After I'm done collecting my much needed items (Diet Coke with Lime), I see/hear the lastest screaming match between another couple. The woman was yelling at her boyfriend, "Didn't I tell you blah blah blah!?!? #(*$#) #() @#$)) ($)#@$ %*."

I mean how can you respond to someone who is pretty much cussing you out? Sure you can cuss right back, but have you thought of perhaps, gee I don't know, belching? Because that's just what her boyfriend did. Belched right in her face as soon as she was done screaming at him. Shut her up quick.

So put that on your To Do List.

1. Belch at mom when she makes you clean your room
2. Belch at your teacher when asked "what the capital of Illinois?"

I'm sure it will work every time ;)

Sure I've almost abandoned this blog...

But goshdarnit, I won't let it die! Anyway, two months later and I finally have an update from immigration. They requested additional evidence from us which we provided to them. Here's their update:

Current Status:

On December 8, 2004, we received your response to our request for evidence or information. It is taking between 15 and 30 days for us to process this kind of case. However because preliminary processing was complete, the remaining processing time will be less than the maximum stated in this message. You will receive a written decision on this case.

I'm actually very excited and hope I can explain this to you all. I'm going to use the example of filing out an application. You get your information already and you start filling out this blank application. About half way through it you realize, "Darn, I need some more information in order to finish this". So off you go on your merry way to get the information. After you have the information you continue where you left off.

That's how I see it with immigration. The first part of our application is done and now that they have the additional information they going to continue where they left off. So God willing my Eduardo will be homeend of next month or February! Hurray!