Journal Your Christmas, Day 7

Today's prompt was about holiday shopping, and we were encouraged to work on a list of holiday gifts or what is left to do ... since I've got that all on a utilitarian Excel spreadsheet & didn't much feel like transferring it over to a list, I decided I'd focus more on my shopping process & how our new "limit" is affecting the two of us!The text reads: "I love Christmas shopping! I cherish the process of carefully selecting gifts for those nearest and dearest to me. It is no surprise that the ones I know best are the ones who are the easiest to buy for. I spot things for them starting way back in July, and I carefully hoard those gifts for wrapping as we get closer to December. The ones I do not know as well, but to whom I feel a desire to give a gift, well, they’re more of a challenge, but I find if I ask some good questions & do a little digging, it usually yields good results. Nothing tops the look on someone’s face when they peel away wrappings to find something they genuinely appreciate!

This year is a bit of a challenge. After talking with Ken about how much money we spend annually on Christmas gifts, we decided to set a limit: $20 per friend or family member, and $50 for each other. In the past, as long as we didn’t drain our accounts or blow over a credit card limit, we pretty much got whatever we wanted to get for people, and we weren’t too worried about the cost. I’m finding that I can handle that limit pretty easily, by stretching every dollar with coupons & a keen eye, as well as an awful lot of handmade stuff! Ken isn’t quite so craft-oriented, plus he gets an idea in his head about exactly what he wants to get for someone, and is just horribly frustrated (I’d say sometimes even crushed) that it’s well over the limit we have to spend. We’ll have to see how this works out this year - next year we may change the limit so it’s not quite so painful and irritating, and just shuffle some funds over from other expenses, and cut those back instead."

Oh, and the photo's of my best friend, Jason, opening one of his gifts from us last year, Manga Claus. Those of you who enjoy manga and/or anime will get understand. Those of you who don't, well, I won't even try to 'splain it. *grin*