Shopping for Christmas gifts is something I have never been very good at doing. Usually I wait until the last minute then rush around trying to find something at any place that happens to be open - a
BP station maybe or the hospital gift shop if I'm lucky. One of the main reasons I got married was to avoid the running -all- over madness this time of year. It's worked out pretty well so far, since my wife considers shopping to be exercise and works out often, especially at Christmas time when her card-swiping hand gets very quick and nimble. Unfortunately there are still a couple of presents I have to buy each year, plus the wife pressures me to help pick out something for the kids, so I'm not entirely off the hook when Christmas season rolls around.
Kids get harder and harder to buy for as they get older, and with mine being 23, 20 and 14 it gets more expensive with each year. It was so easy when they were young and they got more excited from opening the gifts than they did about what was inside. Now on Christmas morning it's almost a chore to get everyone gathered together, except for the youngest who is still excited to be opening colorful packages that might hold that special thing he's been wanting. The older two, and me more and more, would rather sleep in than stumble half awake and half dressed to sit with the rest of the family and partake in a ritual that's lost some of the charm of those past years. But, as always, we'll go through the routine and - even if it gets repetitive after these years - we'll have a nice time and everyone will be happy and all the shopping madness will be forgotten, or at least put on hold for a few more months.
