Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Am I Ready for Christmas

We are a few days from Christmas and I wonder if I have enough gifts for my wife and children. This is a common occurrence for me and I imagine it is for others as well. If you ask my wallet, I probably over spent. If you ask my kids, they probably want more.

Yesterday I picked up one or two more gifts for my youngest son. He has been out of the country the past 2 Christmases and we really didn't send him much. Putting extra money in his bank account seemed much easier as we didn't have to worry about shipping costs nor everything arriving in the package. So this year I have kind of tried to make up for a lack of gifts in the previous years. My wife isn't happy about that at all. Oh well.

One thing I do when I am worried if I have selected enough gifts for everyone is to pull out a simple spreadsheet. I use the rows to list everyone's name and then I list out the gifts I know they are getting. I do this with my wife and so we use fake names for the gifts we are giving each other. It quickly becomes apparent if we have favored one child or another. If one child seems neglected compared to the others, my wife and I make a purchase or two. If someone seems more favored than the others, we hold a gift for a birthday or other event unless it is easily returnable.

In the case of my youngest son, he is sort of getting a large package of gifts that are all related. Unfortunately they all go together and leaving one out is kind of like giving him a car without tires or wheels. Sure he has a great gift but then has to spend his own money to complete the package. That doesn't seem fair and so I hope the other kids forgive me. I think they will as they have each spent several Christmases away from home and enjoyed the extra gifts upon return. We will see.

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