Now is the time to give a gift!

 I wait for the eleventh hour to choose and buy my holiday presents. It is tense and annoying to me and I become so overwhelmed that I become a completely different complaining person to everyone I meet. I end up feeling ashamed at my infantile behavior and I take out my slowness frenzy and panic on everyone else. Last year I winded up going to the jewelry store in the mall and just getting something as they were closing. I pleaded with the store clerk to keep it open and spent 8 times more than I normally would have on my wife’s gift. She didn’t even like it and returned it and since we were saving money for a Caribbean vacation she was really upset with me. The jewelry store would not take it back and would only exchange for something the same cost. This year my plan was to shop the day before Thanksgiving and be completed. Here it is the second week in December. I just cannot go to the mall or even to stores and fight the crowds. I detest shopping. My friend Jason called right after the game and told me his brother never goes in a store for Christmas presents. He lives in Denver and likes to support local stores and his favorite is Baskets by Rita, a company in Aurora. He said this year he really preferred to keep supporting an Aurora business after the July shooting. We talked and tonight my Christmas shopping is done! DONE WITH CHRISTMAS SHOPPING…hurray. I purchased really nice holiday baskets online for my parents and they will arrive on the east coast by Friday…my parents will be so completely satisfied to get an early gift from me. I also discovered holiday gourmet baskets for my siblings. They are so challenging to buy for and hard to please, but I know they will display the basket as a decoration for their open house party next weekend and then they’ll open it and share all the goodies. Ideal gift. For my wife, her business is so challenging this time of year that I ordered a spa type basket for relaxation and I am having it delivered to my Denver office. There’s a spa by our house and I ran down today and purchased the gift card which I’ll include with her card. On Christmas Eve I can stroll into the house with the beautiful basket and I’m finished. I assured my wife I wouldn’t wait and that we’d each spend under two hundred dollars on each other. Excellent solution. A top secret…know when I did all this? I ordered all the baskets, the gourmet ones for my siblings, the one for my parents, the Colorado Christmas ones for my five significant clients and my wife’s Champagne and Chocolate Gift Basket today during commercial breaks while I watched football. I even purchased a New Year’s basket for my boss who will be out of the country until December 30. No malls, no crowds, no crabbiness. It was unbelievably simple and I know I spent less than I normally do when I run out and just grab whatever at the last minute. And being in Denver we got loads of calls after the terrible July Aurora shooting at the theater. I will mention to folks when they call to thank me that I wished to support and use a small Aurora business. Gift giving made simple. Ideal answer to holiday gifts.