Christmas.....bah, humbug?

Merry Christmas, everyone! Ok, it's actually the end of Boxing Day, but it's still Christmas season.

Shopping was brutal this year. I mean it, I am DEFINITELY going to have to start shopping for everyone come January for the next Christmas in 2008! I can't do any of this last minute business again! But actually, it's not the shopping that really kills me, is the lack of preparation. You see, shopping would be sooo much easier if I had a plan. Yes, a plan. If I think someone needs, say, a hair dryer, bam, I go get one and strike that name off the list. But can I plan? Can I decide what to get people first instead of wandering up and down aisles hoping that the perfect gift will just jump off the shelf and scream "Pick me!"?

So most of my gifts this year were more of the "this will do" variety. A little thought being infused in the gift, a six-degrees-of-separation connection was made between my favourite people and the inanimate objects that spoke out to me from the shelves, and almost everyone got a gift. There's always someone you forgot to think of, and it hits you square in the forehead. Flick! Ouch! I actually have a couple people I forgot...maybe more, but I don't want to think of who else I missed.

What sucked this year most is that I didn't have absolutely knock-out gifts for everyone. I like to think I do each year. I did end up giving my dad exactly what he wanted (a leather case for the GPS he bought a couple of weeks ago --- how could I not? He kept on telling me that he saw it at Best Buy but it was $50 so he didn't get it). The only "wow" thing I could think of getting my husband was a universal remote control. Yeah, I know, talk about a sucky gift! It wasn't even one of those Logitech computerized remotes that can do practically anything (I don't doubt it could even flush your toilet for you...). Nope, it was just a simple device, and it's not like we needed another remote to add to the 5 or 6 we already have. I was actually hoping that this remote would help solve the volume control problem we've been having with the other two remotes...it's been almost a couple of years, and I still hate having to get up and adjust the volume on the TV set. It was a hint, I guess, to my husband to get that volume issue fixed. Subtle?

But what I really should have gotten for him, if I bit the bullet, was Guitar Hero III. He has become absolutely obsessed with this game in the past couple of days, having played it on my dad's Wii and spending a few bonding hours with his friends last night on a PS2. I was thinking of getting it for him, but I didn't know if it was worth investing in PS2 accessories when Wii, XBox and PS3 are so popular these days.

Like in many previous years, my dad and I trudge over to an electronics store to spend our Boxing Day morning. Getting on in years, we haven't gotten around to attacking any 6am lineups. We walked through the doors almost 5 hours later, only to find that many of the things we were secretly hoping were still available were, obviously, gone. We made a pact to come again next year and see if we could bring home something decent with us.

Browsing around the store, I come across a Guitar Hero III bundle for PS2. It's not on sale, there's a pile in the corner, and another pile at the end of the aisle. Hmm.....should I call my husband?

I could hear a shrill of delight as he casually says, "It's your decision if you buy it". Hmm....yeah, right. But how could I deny his inner child?

I brought it home for him and his thankful eyes and shy grin was thanks enough for me. As we speak, he set up a TV in the garage and is jamming away at the guitar while he and his friends also play some rounds of poker. He says they're having way too much fun; I think most of them are there for the guitar and not the poker.

I'm returning the remote control the second I have the chance to do it. I figure that I may still get that volume control fixed anyways. After all, my Guitar Hero out in the garage thinks I'm a pretty cool wife, and I'm not beyond using a little a bribery to get what I want.

Merry Christmas!