Perspective

Photo: House & Garden

I thought I'd share a photo of one of my favorite doors! I just love this pretty blue door and its frosty aqua wreath.
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Things at the office are rather busy and also stressful with the economic downturn. I work in a busy "Oil & Gas" town and layoffs are starting to trickle through the industry. Everyone is worried and we expect next year to be worse. We've lost one of our junior engineers already and rumours are that we face up to 300 job cuts in the new year. For a company of 2800 people, that means more than 1 in 10 may lose their job. One of my colleague's husband was laid off, and with 2 small children, they are rather worried. So it definitely puts a damper on the holiday spirit. And also lends some perspective!

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I wonder if you have been affected yet?
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I've decorated our house and it looks lovely, but I haven't honestly felt that excited about Christmas. We've cut back the gift budget (which feels good actually), but with job losses looming, it's amazing how your perspective changes. I suddenly see so much of the junk and consumerism related to Christmas as a terrible waste of money. And I wonder when I became such a materialist. I am not a big money waster compared to many, and simply want a beautiful home, but when did the joy of life become the eternal acquistion of new things?

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So this Christmas, the only expense we indulged in terms of decoration was our Christmas tree. I bought my cards on sale last Christmas and kept them wrapped up, so opening them this year was a nice surprise! Otherwise, we've bought nothing new for the house. Instead, I just moved $6000 into savings. I suddenly feel like a machine that is being re-programmed from constant self-gratification to constant saving. It's positively weird.
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Don't get be wrong. I still covet things, but they look profoundly less shiny and necessary when you imagine being unemployed for 18 months or longer.

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And my desire to save probably isn't good for the economy! I work in the plastics industry after all, and should be encouraging you all to go out and BUY BUY BUY (particularly something FAKE)! Still, don't you think our economy and our lives were getting a little overinflated? So perhaps many of us needed a dose of perspective.
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We're having a dinner party tomorrow night and another next Sunday. We'll probably splurge on food and nice wine and desserts, but I'd rather share the season's bounty feeding family and friends than on buying more stuff I really, honestly don't need.
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I hope I haven't dampened your holiday spirits. It's snowing heavily outside and I'm starting to feel positively festive - but instead of going overboard shopping this weekend, we will cook and bake and live vicariously through blogs and window-shopping instead!