All is not yet lost

Christmas Presents and such...

I went shopping with my future Mom-in-law today, mostly looking for Christmas presents. We ended up buying a couple things each for ourselves and some groceries.... go figure.

But part of our discussion was that it gets harder every year to buy Christmas presents for people because everyone has everything they need already, and it feels like we're buying them something they will never use just to say we got them something.

I have a very short list of people I buy presents for, or at least people I buy significant presents for. I already have little gifts for people at work - Christmas scented incense stick packs, and something similar but a little bigger for my preceptors. That and personalized cards should get me squared away with people at work. But my list for people who get "real" Christmas presents is very short indeed.

There's my parents and my brother, who've gotten presents about every other year depending on whether I found something they would like, and that was easy to stash in my luggage when I went home. I would really like to get my parents something this year because it will be the first year I'm not spending Christmas with them. Plus, I am now working at my first real job, so I can afford to spend more on them. But, since I am not going home, I need to find something that will ship, and since I don't have it yet, it will probably not make it to them by Christmas. sigh...

Then there's the in-laws. I have no idea what I could get that would be appropriate. I would really like to get them something, because I am really grateful and happy that they accepted me so readily into their family. I just don't know what I can get that would be useful and significant enough to express this.

Besides those two, there's Daniel. He's not very hard to shop for, in general. But this year is hard because we're in between moves, and so anything practical might as well wait until after the move. At the same time, something fun seems trivial; it seems like I'm always getting him something silly and fun that he likes but doesn't love. (And I have one of those already; I'd just like to get him something more)

Then there's just a couple of my friends. 2 of the 3 of them are mutual friends of mine and Dan's and we can get them a present from the both of us. The 3rd is a very very good friend of mine that I would absolutely love to make a present for because he would appreciate the item, as well as the thought behind it. Of course, there's no way I can create anything worthwhile between now and Christmas, so that's frustrating too.

I guess the point of this post is to get your Christmas shopping done earlier, so you don't face the dilemma I'm in right now! I will definitely take ideas on presents if anyone has them, though.

posted by TiredMama @ 12/14/2005 05:37:00 PM