Making Christmas lists, plural
Yep, it’s that time of year - make a cappuccino or hot chocolate and sit down in your favorite chair to pump out those creative Christmas list ideas.
My initial draft this year for the American family was a bit skimpy (amazing how buying a house can preoccupy a mind). But it was nothing compared to Tim’s first draft for the US family, hehe. Tim tried his best, don’t get me wrong. It’s not easy to come up with items that are not too expensive, not inconsequential, useful, and can either be mailed from the US (lightweight) or be purchased from a website that delivers to Europe from Europe (to avoid import taxes) but accepts US credit cards. He got frustrated because he couldn’t think of anything, poor guy. But in the end he only had 3 items on his list, one of which can only be purchased from non-English websites.
It was at this point that Mom enlightened me. “Cheryl, it’s your job to help him!” Apparently now that we are married, I share the guilt for failure of a male partner to generate a Christmas list of acceptable length and breadth! I had to laugh out loud, hahaha. But okay, we haven’t even been married a year yet, so I decided I can play the good wife and come up with some stuff for Tim… this year. Next year he has to improve! :)
Anyone else writing multiple Christmas lists?
on November 15th, 2006 at 0:33
Oh yes my dear. This will be our 3rd married christmas, although my help was required on list making well before we got married. Up until this year we had to come up with some fairly large - family specific (read: appropriate) - non-overlapping - affordable - easy to bring home in a suitcase (read: dvds and cds) - seperate lists. ugh. This year it will be quite a bit easier. My family has grown so much of late that we decided to forgo the sibling exchange we’ve been doing and just have everyone bring a game to play for our “Small” Family Christmas, then we need two exchange gifts for the big one - so no lists there, except for my mom and dad. His side, for which we have previously had to create a very large list, has decided to do the exchange thing among cousins, which helps a ton.
Anyhow, for this year, I can’t help much, but over the past several years I have started doing something that has helped populate birthday and christmas lists for myself and the hubby. I keep a couple files on my computer (which I have recently started using a website called Kaboodle to do this) and all year long when I see something I want (or he wants) that is something I can wait for… I add it to the list. Generally, as long as I don’t go buy it myself, by the end of the year or at birthday time, there is at least the beginnings of a healthy list of things he or I actually want. It’s worked for me. Good luck!