November 27, 2009 – Day 331Today I vividly remembered one thing I really don’t like about Christmas. It’s the shopping. Even though I don’t do much of it anymore, I dread what I do have to do. Christine and Ian, Travis and Amanda and Ken and I don’t bother with gifts or money anymore. That’s a new thing since last year and I love it. I give my youngest two boys money (and will until they’re married and settled down) and Christine usually helps me shop for my grandchildren. If she didn’t, I’d probably just give them money too. I don’t know what they’d do with money since they all already have all they could ever want – and more.
But I have to buy a gift from Ken and I each for the family Christmas party/gift exchange that’s coming up next weekend – so I went to several stores today to look for something. I didn’t find a single thing that I thought anyone would like.
After a couple hours, I could hardly force myself to put one foot in front of the next to go to yet another store. I was exhausted – partly from all the walking I’d already done, partly from not getting enough sleep last night and partly because I was starving. I was so frustrated that I just wanted to cry.
In the end, I thought maybe I’d buy a movie from either Ken or I so I hobbled (not literally but that’s how I was feeling) over to Best Buy to see what they had for movies. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I couldn’t even buy a movie because some of them are Blue Ray and some are not. I don’t know what Blue Ray is and and I don’t know who has Blue Ray – and who doesn’t, or if a Blue Ray movie would work in a non-Blue Ray machine or vice versa. Ugh!
So even after hours of shopping, I didn’t find a gift for either me or Ken to bring to the family Christmas party. I’m running out of time! What am I going to do?! I suppose we could each buy a gift card to some store but what fun is the party going to be if we all end up exchanging gift cards?!
That is the hardest part of the gift exchange for sure. At the end of the day though it's about the thought and sharing time with family and friends that counts, not the gift.
ReplyDeleteAbout BluRay, it's the new high definition format that is supposed to eventually replace DVD's. Most people don't have BluRay players yet though (although the Playstation 3 has a BlueRay player built in), but pretty much everyone has a DVD player so you could have gotten a DVD movie.
That's good to know because I haven't bought the gift yet.
ReplyDeleteI know how you feel. It is always so difficult to get a gift for the gift exchange. Whatever you get we will all know how much effort it took!
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