Holiday Shopping

How are you doing on your holiday shopping? I have to admit I have (more than once) secretly wished we could skip the holiday shopping custom for a year just so I could catch up. Although, isn't it an amazing feeling when you give someone that gift that totally surprises them and you can see the pleasure on their face! And it doesn't have to be something expensive; just a gift that really means something to the recipient; something that says "I listen to you when you talk".

It's not always easy to find that gift when there's a deadline, though. No. Then you just end up getting people ANYTHING because you're over budget and you only have three days left to shop and wrap and you hope they'll like it because your heart's in the right place but that damned deadline! tick tick tick tick...Little kids seem to be the easiest to shop for cos they're just so excited with the whole process; and elderly people...you want to get them something special, but do you ever wonder to yourself "what if old aunt Mary or uncle Tom doesn't last much longer than the holidays? would it make more sense to get them something edible, like their favorite fudge, rather than that glass cat statue?"

And how about the WORSE feeling in the world...you forget someone. I always have an extra gift wrapped just in case. And all of this seems so banal when you realize there's a war going on. I don't think we mean to ignore that fact...it's just more comfortable for us to pretend things are as they always are. And so it is. As my friend Joe says, "it's the details that make life, life."