Christmas Shopping

Christmas comes but once a year and that is a good thing when it comes to shopping. Theresa and I arrive at our list of people for whom we wish to buy Xmas gifts. We keep a book or rather Theresa keeps a book with a list of all the gifts we gave and to whom over the past years.

We discuss the appropriate gifts for this year with the info we had in the book and away we or mostly Theresa goes. She has to be sure of the exact size and colour for each and with twenty in the same room at Christmas morning we better be right.

Here there is a large selection of stores and with the economy down there are sales in every store. The adds come with the newspaper and you could not believe the paper used for shopping promotions. Last Thursday the weight of the ads was nearly ten pounds and this is repeated nearly every day from now to Christmas. It is a good thing we have a active recycling program.

I play golf every Tuesday and Theresa goes shopping and has nearly every gift ready for wrapping. I look at the pile of gifts and I wonder how we will get them in our travelling cases and through customs. Flying today does not leave anything over the weight limit to travel without a penalty. That is my worry.

We realize that the real joy is in the giving and we have a certain happiness in the whole Xmas spirit as we look over our purchases before wrapping and again when the gifts are opened. Theresa tries to make every gift special and wraps them with the same care.

We realize that gifts are not the real meaning of Christmas but an expression of sharing with those we love.With so many this year experiencing difficult times we try to make contributions to worthy causes to help bring joy to the needy. As our Christmas shopping comes to an end I am thankful that I have a partner who loves to shop and I can help here and there with good ideas for gifts for the hard to serve. Next year I wish to take a more active role in the joy of Christmas shopping.