Christmas shopping

That time of year again!
This year I said - "I don't have the energy to go all out. We'll just have a practical Christmas"
I meant - just the basics. I usually give my children money to spend however they want as well as something small, like candles, a blouse, chocolates, - just so it's not only about money.
The grand-kids I like to spoil.

However, this year I warned everybody that it would be simple. I asked my daughter-in-law what the children needed in the way of clothes. I planned to buy them each a toy and then something "practical".

"Socks" she said.

O.K., I thought - I can do that.

So, I marched into Sears and bought mountains of socks - some spiderman, some Joe Cool (whoever he is) and some pretty ones and some baby ones. I agonized over the sizes (I did have their sizes written down on a piece of paper, but somehow they didn't match the socks I was holding in my hand).

Sitting on the floor, I kept referring back to the paper: Justin needs
size 5 - 7. Is that shoe or sock? Some of the socks only had the sock size on the pack. Other ones had both shoe and sock size. Hmmm - this was harder than I thought.

I decided to sit there for a while to figure things out. Glancing up I saw a women who looked like she was in her 80's. "Don't worry, dear", she said "in a few weeks it'll be all over". She actually looked much calmer and less flustered than I was.

That was back in November. I thought I'd get an early start. Somehow, no matter how early I start, the days creep up and before we know it - only a few days left to finish shopping.

After visiting with my baby grand-daughter, a couple of days ago, I made the mistake of going into Toys-R-Us on my way home. I walked in the door and was immediately assaulted by all their Star Wars, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Dungeons and Dragons toys screaming to be bought. I hemmed and hawed and walked around until I was hot and thirsty and fed up. Intending to buy something small to go along with their toy and socks, I gave in and bought really fun and exciting and expensive toys after all.

I do the same thing every year.

Every year I start off saying "let's do just the basics - there is no need to overspend" and every year I buy more than I intended.

Ah well - Christmas is for kids and they're only little for such a short time. And somewhere in Santa's book of etiquette, doesn't it say that grandmas and grandpas are supposed to spoil their grandkids at Christmas time?