Almost Done For Christmas

Well, where do I start, I am finished with shopping, for the kids. I have a present to get for my nephew, for Scott and for my inlaws. I think we are going to do a joint gift for the inlaws this year. They aren't terribly hard to buy for, but seperately, it seems as if they are. We finished up yesterday, rather quickly, hit three stores, and we were done. We even went out and picked and bought a tree. I isn't perfect, but then again, I wasn't looking for perfect, I was looking for a really good tree for a decent price, no muss no fuss. I used to be so picky that we would go on a quest, and it would take forever in the freezing cold, but there are better ways to spend my time. Like I said in my Thanksgiving post, priorities have changed, my budget has gotten tighter, and well, we will actually throw the tree out into the street the day after New Year's anyway. It gets picked up and put on the beaches to help reclaim the dunes, but it still doesn't last forever. We talk about getting a live tree with a ball, every year, but that doesn't happen. It takes planning and time, it takes knowing a spot where the tree will be planted when we hit the January thaw. Scott isn't giving my any ideas for Christmas. He is hard to buy for. He asks for functional things, for example, "I could use some sweatshirt, for every day, not for work, but you know..." That is what I got out of him. I hate to guess for him, I hate it. He mentioned one year that he wanted a really great spatula for the BBQ, I went out and bought one of those long ones with the holes in it, and really was proud of myself. That wasn't his only present, but it was one of them. He opened it and said something to the effect that it wasn't an appropriate present for Christmas. He mentioned at one point that he wanted on, so I bought one. Now, I really try to pin him down to something he wants, something that is important to him. He doesn't give me those things, because he doesn't want me to spend money on him. I wish he wasn't that tough. He never used to be, but time and circumstances they change. I will come up with something for him, I will try. I hope he appreciates the try.
Well, cookies are baked, need to start wrapping for the teacher and for the bus driver. I alwasy try to get something simple for both, nothing ridiculously expensive, but a token of appreciation for their hard work. After elementary school age, though, the gift giving stops. That is when the kids change classes and have many many teachers, so that isn't economically feasable for us to be gift givers.
I guess that while the kids are in school, I should start to wrap their presents. I have food shpping to do, but some of it cannot be done until a couple of days before Christmas. I have to order a turkey from our butcher, my local supermarket was wiped out and I usually get the "free" one, but the offer was weird this year. Usually you have to spend a certain amount in a certain period of time. This year it was similar, but not only did you have to purchase a certain amount, it had to be on certain products, and it wasn't a combination of dollar amounts on different products, it was an amount of money on this product and or an amount of money on this product. For example, $40 in Campbell's soup. I don't think I spend that much on Campbell's soup in a year. Strange. The incentive wasn't there this year, so I buy my turkey. SHould have bought it when it ws on sale at Thanksgiving time, but I waited. OH well. I guess I will order mine today. I have never been this behind in my food shopping for Christmas. Usually, I have everything in the house ahead of time. It reallydoesn't matter, I just like to be done so that it is convenient for me. Well, now I am finished with my long list of dones and not dones, gladly will sign off and hope many of you are far ahead of me in the Christmas game!