I am sure that I have mentioned that one year, I finished all of my Christmas shopping by Dec. 1.This year, I am hoping to do the same.
As such, my husband and I have been trying to do the bulk of our Christmas shopping online. What that means is we spend two to three hours searching through endless lists of "Great Gifts for 7 Year Old Boys" and "Great Gifts for 5 Year Old Girls." Eventually, all of the LEGO sets and Polly Pockets look the same and we start fighting about whether or not a rocket ship is an age-appropriate gift (him : yes and me: no). Then we slam the lid of the laptop down in a pique and huff about thinking that the other person knows nothing about gift-giving. Then we apologize and try again the next day. Mostly we just add things to our cart and then review the cart and take the things out again.
We are worse in a real store. In the event that the children are elsewhere and we have a little time to shop, we wander around looking at possible gifts and offer them up to one another, sacrificial-lamb style.
"What about this?" I ask, hopefully.
"Meh," he replies. "I was thinking more along the lines of this."
"Meh," I reply.
On and on we go until we get hungry and stop for lunch. Afterwards, we are generally tired and pick up the kids to go home to try and convince them that naps are awesome and we should all just sleep. Maybe this year will be different and the entire process of gift-buying will be fun and inexpensive. I am not holding my breath.
In addition to having all of my shopping done by Dec. 1, our family is trying to make each other gifts this year instead of buying random crap that we done need or want. I would like the record reflect that this was my mother's idea who is now pretending that the rules don't apply to her and she can buy whatever she wants for any one she wants to buy for. She is retired now and hard to control.
My husband and I are putting our crafty-pants on and hoping for a Christmas miracle of gifts bought (and paid for) and presents made and not too ugly. There may be a possibility that I will hit a craft fair or two in the meantime and buy something that looks like I could have made it.
Merry Christmas shopping! 'Tis the season to make merry and fail terribly at crafting.
