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I spent most of the weekend Christmas shopping. With 40 (yep, that�s forty) people on my list this year, I started in July, but that was with the easy people. Now I�m down to the people that are difficult to shop for. My stepbrother is the hardest. He hunts and fishes and plays cards and paintball with his three other hunting and fishing friends. That�s about it. He also lives in my mom and stepdad�s garage with Taylor the Super Hunting Dog in about 150 sq. feet of space (hey�don�t knock it�it�s heated, and he doesn�t have to pay rent), so it�s not like he has places to PUT anything. Either the dog will eat it or it will disappear into his piles of trash out there. I�m at a loss. I don�t even remember what I gave him last year. I know he gave me a green mag light and a set of fire extinguishers for my car and kitchen. He wants me to be safe. Thankfully, I haven�t had to use either fire extinguisher, but I like knowing I have them.
I keep feeling I forgot to add someone to the list, but I can�t imagine who it could possibly be. I�ve got my mom, my stepdad, my stepbrother, stepsister and brother-in-law and my Nana. Then my half-brother and sister-in-law, my two nieces and my nephew, who I need to finish soon if their gifts are going to make it to Washington State before Christmas Eve. Then my five girl-cousins (one�s a cousin-in-law) whom I�ve always exchanged with since we were little kids. I�ve got my present roommate, my two old roommates, my best friend, her husband and son, and her mom. Another friend since high school, plus three other more recent friends. Both my bosses plus two other people in my office. The Boyfriend, his mom and dad and his sister. Oh�and her boyfriend, too. Plus three grab gifts. And my mom�s best friend, who is like my other mother, and who has crappy kids of her own that will probably forget to buy her anything. I think that�s maybe it. I hope that�s everyone. My Christmas budget is already gone, and I�m only about 75% finished.
Not that I mind shopping for all these people. With very few exceptions, my whole list is full of people I like and want to give gifts to. They�re my family, given and chosen, and it makes me happy to pass on to them a token of my thoughts, evidence that I thought of them while I was out in the midst of the holiday craziness. Something they can look at and say, "That was from Jennifer." I like that.
My problem comes with the obligatory gifts. The people on there (and I�m not naming names) who are there because if I don�t have a gift for them I�ll look bad. The people I don�t know very well, whom I�ll end up giving some weird thing to just so that I have something to give. What is that? WHY am I doing it? Oh�because I feel I have to. Right. We covered that. How not in the "Spirit of Christmas" can I be?
My mom had a good idea a few years ago. She started buying gifts from organizations that benefit someone else to give to the people on her list she doesn�t have a real connection with, or who are particularly grichy or overindulged. Three Christmases ago, she gave several people ornaments that were sold by the Pine Street Inn. The cost of the ornaments paid for several people�s dinner and lodging for a night. Another time, she gave House Pins that benefited Habitat for Humanity. Last year, it was a different ornament to benefit Rosie�s Place, a shelter for homeless women and their children. This year, she bought my cousin�s son, the most spoiled child on earth, a flock of chicks. He doesn�t really get the chicks�they go to some child in a third-world country. The kid gets a certificate from Heifer Project stating that the chicks were bought in his name. My mom�s philosophy is that this way, even if the people who receive the gift don�t appreciate it, it at least benefited someone else.
I wonder how my stepbrother would feel about "owning" a llama?
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