So, with just a little over a month left until Christmas I have decided this year that I am going to have all my gifts bought and wrapped by the first of December.  I don’t have a lot of people to buy for, but I do have a tendency to go overboard with the shopping and I am one of those manic shoppers who is still picking up odds and ends December 24th then rushing home to get everything wrapped.  I usually have to write lists in order to keep track of what I bought and for whom.  Regardless of this list-keeping, I quite often find myself staring at a gift and asking my ever patient husband if he remembered who it was supposed to be for.

The end result of all of this is usually me, extremely stressed and exhausted, shoving as much chocolate and eggnog into me on Christmas Eve as I can.

Well, no more!  I am embracing a peaceful, calm Christmas this year with lots of caroling and little wrapping.  Now, what I ideally would like to do is forgo the gift giving completely and maybe just give everybody on my list happy thoughts, but I have a feeling that wouldn’t go over all that well.  So I am doing the next best thing and bringing out two secret weapons: gift cards and gift bags.

Really, whoever invented gift cards is my second favorite person in the world, behind only the inventor of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.  Gifts card are so easy they should almost be illegal. Instead of the normal month of shopping, this year it took about, oh, two hours?  And that included stopping at my favorite cafe and having a candy cane coffee.  A trip to the dollar store to get some gift bags and I was all done.

Now I can spend my Christmas holidays on something much more important:  cheesy Christmas movies and mulled wine.