Christmas Shopping: Get set!

Sooo... With round one of shopping complete, it turns out I've already managed to buy one gift for one niece that she already owns, and another gift for another niece that she received last yuletide.  My nephews that I've already bought for keep giving me more ideas, but the nephews I haven't shopped for yet are still leaving me stumped.  Two steps forward, three steps back.

When I asked my parents what they'd like for Christmas, my dad responded with, "All I want is for your mom (the hip surgery patient) to be able to walk well again on Christmas." and I believe I may have promised to get him that.  (Oops.  Flashbacks to little Cindy in that very Brady Christmas episode immediately followed.)  The prospect of lightening my shopping budget got the best of me.  A working hip would come free to me, but with heavy pressure on Mom's physical therapist.  (Step it up, bud!)

The nine-year-old keeps begging me for clues about what he's getting.  He says, "If you won't tell me, will you at least tell my sister?  She won't tell me.  I promise!  She's really good at keeping secrets!"  Sounds like a conspiracy in the works to me.  He's putting way too much pressure on me to come up with something spectacular, so I set the bar especially low by telling him I got him tons of socks and underwear, while sounding really excited about it.  Apparently, he doesn't remember complaining last year that he was sure I had just bought him a stack of social studies books.  Giving such a suggestion to your prankster aunt will get you nowhere good, fast.  (See video below)

Well, I foresee trips to the return counter in my immediate future, erase marks on my checklist, all the while with my next paycheck seeming eons away.  I think what I really may be in dire need of is an early screening of A Charlie Brown Christmas so Linus can remind me once again what Christmas is really all about.

And, maybe Thanksgiving deserves a good hard look for at least one week.  'Tis the season!