So, here it is the first day of a new year...and I can't help but feel pretty glad that the whole winter holiday season is pretty much over. Don't get me wrong; I love Thanksgiving and Christmas and the hoopla we make over the beginning of a new year, but give me a nice quiet President's Day celebration anytime! Considering how much I love to shop and that holidaytime is a perfect excuse for people like me to spend endless hours slogging into retail stores, it may surprise you to know that, yes, even I, actually get tired of shopping (I know my mother just spun in her grave)!
Perversely, one of my closest friends despises shopping and will do whatever it takes to avoid going into a store. Go figure! But, towards the end of my shopping, when my feet are beginning to burn and my American Express card is feeling pretty puny, I lose my flair for gift giving and begin to commit the dreaded gifting gaffes: I tend to buy stuff not only that they won't find useful but that is downright ridiculous: golf-ball-finder glasses, battery-powered potato peelers, weight-loss books, tacky holiday garb, and coffee mugs with silly sayings. I might as well be tossing my money on a blazing yule log! Yet, that saying "It's the thought that counts" overtakes all common sense when you are desperately hunting that final gift. Did I diminish the feelings I have for the person and the value of our friendship because I gave them a Chai Pet? I hope not, just as I hope that the person who gave me the mail-ordered two pound Swiss cheese wheel really isn't making a statement about me or our friendship, but wanted it to be "the thought that counts".
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