I
absolutely look forward to tomorrow’s teleconference. I have a few ideas about
the topic but the things you share will make it far richer. Funny, how I
used to be disbelieving when Christmas sales started right after
Halloween. Now, it’s the 12th of November (just 12 days
after Halloween) and I don’t know how I will get everything done in the
approximately six weeks until Christmas.
I
think tips for the season help a lot and tomorrow we will try to focus on the “non-material”
part of Christmas – but we (in my family) do something that helps with
Christmas shopping so I thought I’d get a jump on things and share this
idea. My family has nine members in Alaska. Three are
children. The rest are adults – and they have expectations for Christmas,
too.
One
of the VERY hardest things is shopping with no idea what someone would like… I’ll
look at things I would like and then lose confidence – with good reason.
My daughters in law just don’t share my quirky taste. I really do want to
know what people’s Christmas gift wishes are – I don’t have to buy things from
a list but with a list, I get a better idea of the kinds of things they
like. Seriously, the men in my family would get nothing but socks from me
if I didn’t get have other options. Who likes opening socks?
We
all get together for Thanksgiving, at my house, in Anchorage. Because I
am handy on a computer, I make a Wish List page decorated with bells or a snowman.
I give this out at Thanksgiving and everyone can fill out five or more things
they would like to have for Christmas. I save the Sunday paper to help
the children find gift ideas. If the children put something down that’s a
“major” gift, beyond my budget, then I can get them an accessory to it and let
their parents get the big present. When all nine of these
pages are done (and yes! I make one for myself, too) I make copies of all of
them for each family. So many headaches are eliminated when we do this and
it is fun for the children, too, because it gives them something to do after
dinner. Since, I want to put up more “resources” on the web page, I’ll
make a printable master for this Christmas wish list, all in the interest of
making life easier.
