MInTheGap

Is it just me, or has it become more difficult over the years to
purchase a gift for someone– be it a family member or friend– than it
has been in the past.  In times of online wish lists and people needing
things that are more expensive, it seems to me that I’m struggling
trying to 1) get something someone wants and 2) afford it without going
massively in debt.

On the first hand is getting something that someone wants.  I think
that for the first time in a long time I have more ideas about what to
get people than ever before.  Friends use those wish lists, family have
been dropping hints– but not the normal hints.  The hints have been “a
grill”, “a workshop toolkit”, “a dishwasher”, etc.  These are fine and
good– if one has the money.

Which brings me to my second
problem.  I’ve been trying to get out underneath debt, and one of my
first steps was getting one of those Christmas Club type things to save
through out the year.  When I got the check recently, there really
wasn’t all that much there to spread around to all the people that are
expecting gifts from my wife and I.  How do you cope?!

I’m
sharing in my wife’s feelings that she loves giving, but doesn’t love
the getting for the giving process.  That, and I share her wonderment
at how our grandparents ever get anything for all of us…  It must
take saving much more than I have this past year all year to do it! 
And here I thought I was getting a jump on it all.

Next year
won’t be as tight but will bring the same questions:  Big gift with
multi-way payment or small.  And who all is included?  And just wait
until my kids start getting old enough to where they actually know
they’re getting gifts.

(Don’t get me going about having two December birthdays in my house! )