Okay I might be stalling.

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Christmas is my favorite holiday, always has been. I love all the colored lights, the deer, the nativity scenes on people's lawns, I love all of it. Well, except the shopping. I don't do it. You will rarely even see me at a grocery store during the Christmas season, much less a specialty store or my idea of hell - a mall. Just the thought of it puts my teeth on edge.

So my way of dealing with the aspects of the season that I don't like is to do all of my shopping online. And I am good at it. I search to find what I want, compare prices, look for free shipping, etc, and I buy. I enjoy finding a package or 2 or 3 or more on my porch when I get home from work most days during the weeks before Christmas day.

This year is a little different though. Usually I create a little spreadsheet, yes, I said spreadsheet, with a column for each person I buy for and 2 columns if I also fill a stocking for them. That way I can keep track of things I want to buy and things I actually do purchase. I can look at it and say - oh - I need to get one of the kids another gift. Or, I don't have enough for the stockings yet.

Um ... this year? No list. Nothing, nada. I have written nothing down and I haven't opened hardly anything that has come in the mail. Somehow this year I left it to my little old (and I feel so old when it comes to memory) brain to keep track of everything. Consequently I am now, 4 days before Christmas, facing a stack of boxes spilling out of my closet hoping I kept everything straight regarding what I wanted to buy for each person, and also hoping I ordered everything in time so that it is actually already here. In the house. Where I can wrap it.

Wish me luck. LOTS of luck.
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