December 7, 2009
It was a good weekend out at the North Clark County farm where the temperature this morning was a brisk 19 degrees. On Saturday, a tree was harvested off the property and on Sunday was transformed into the most beautiful Christmas tree to ever grace the house. My boyfriend and I sorted through boxes of ornaments and placed the most well preserved and important ones on the tree's ample branches. We agreed that the holidays are a special time to savor great memories from the past and rejoice in the present with the people that we love. But uh oh, where are the presents? As I was putting holiday decorations around the house, the pressure in my mind began to build. I so far have made very few Christmas gift purchases. There are new people in my life on my list. There are my kids and grandson. And my mother...my special mother who has decided that she can get here by plane from Boise. I purchased the ticket for her, yesterday. Two weeks to go!!. For those in the same jam....not enough ideas, not enough time, there's a shopping-versus-saving advice story from today's Wall Street Journal by Brett Arends called "Try Christmas Saving, Not Christmas Shopping." Arends' key point is that if you saved the average $600 spent by the average family every year on gifts, after ten years you'd probably have an extra $7,700. After 35 years you'd have $51,000—not bad, even when adjusted for eventual inflation." Besides that there's a huge marked up profit margin on the stuff we buy at stores of between 35 and 60 percent. Armed with this reminder, I'm now more panicked than before. At least, I've started a list.
