How to tire me out

It's really quite simple.  To tire me out to the point of exhaustion, make me wrap 20 gifts in 2 hours.

I suck at wrapping gifts.  I suck at picking out gifts.  The whole gift giving process is just not my thing.  You know what else is not my thing?  U-scan checkouts.  Yep, I can take 45 minutes at one of those dang things.  Between finding the bar code on each item, processing coupons, bagging, fighting with the machine...seriously, it's tons quicker if I just go to a checker.  I always respect checkers - they've got skillz, and I've got nada.

Back to gift giving.  I *think* I'm done Christmas shopping for Julia and my husband.  There's the possibility of a stocking stuffer or two still, but for the most part I'm done done done done.  So why not finalize it by wrapping all the gifts?  I have a compulsion to complete things, so wrapping is what I did tonight.  Everything I wrapped looks mangled but oh well.  I put sticky bows on every gift because I don't want to deal with ribbon and curling it.  Yep, I'm not skilled AND lazy, awesome combination.   Julia's 2 years old and probably not all that judgmental yet.  My husband already knows I can't wrap.  They should be an easy audience, at least as far as wrapping goes.

My husband and I decided not to exchange much in the way of gifts this year.  That's cool, because I never know what to get him.  He buys what he wants throughout the year, and what would probably impress him is something like a new laptop or a big ass TV for the bedroom.  Since we don't want to buy big ticket items just to buy big ticket items, we're just not doing much for each other.  I got him 1.5 gifts.  The .5 is particularly lame.  The 1 gift I think he'll like, and it was well within the dollar limit we set.  And a couple stocking stuffers, and he's done.

Now I did end up getting Julia a LOT of things (17 wrapped things), but nothing cost much.  Her most expensive gift is the bicycle helmet, which I had neglected to get her when I got her a tricycle for her birthday...ummm, five months ago.  Oops.  Yeah, a bicycle helmet as a Christmas gift.  See, I told you I suck at gift giving. 

Like I said, I got her a lot of stuff despite not spending much.  Still, I worry about setting an expectation on her part about quantity of gifts.  This is her first real Christmas.  Last year was lame because we were moving during Christmas.  She got some gifts, but it was really toned down just because I didn't have the time or really inclination to do much.  There was no Christmas tree, no decorating, no cookie making, nada.  And she was still really young.

S and I talked, and we're not going to focus on the Santa part of Christmas.  I just want to avoid it as much as possible, although I know if we skate by it this year, we'll have to deal with it next year.

So here is what she will get:

bicycle helmet with lady bugs and flowers
Thomas the Tank Engine toothbrush
Mickey Mouse coloring book
Minnie Mouse puzzle
Winnie the Pooh puzzle
sticker book
flashcard puzzle with numbers
flashcard puzzle with letters
lunchbox for school
2 pairs of pajamas
Don't Break the Ice (game)
Hi Ho Cherri-O (game)
several cans of Playdoh (she LOVES playdough, and we couldn't find our playdough after we moved)
Playdough food kit

Is that it?  I think it might be.  Although I could be forgetting something. See, not much in expense (probably about $100 total) but a lot of things to unwrap. 

S's parents asked us to get her something from them since they will get here on a plane on Christmas Day.  So I got her a fake food set & a cash register from them.  If my side of the family asks for any ideas, I will suggest a Leaptop.  It has gotten rave reviews.  Combined with what we are getting her, that all seems plenty, and I think she will like most of the gifts.  I've seen most of the Black Friday ads, and no other toys really struck me as being ones that she'd enjoy.  I am actually glad that I won't be standing at Toys R Us at 4am this Black Friday.  Because as I learned the previous 3 Black Fridays, Toys R Us's lines suck almost as much as my U-scanning abilities.

Now I just have to figure out stuff for everyone else.   That's the really difficult part.  What do you get the family you see once a year or less?  I usually just send money because I'm lazy and suck at gift giving.