On December 24, I ventured out into the retail world to claim the last of my gift-giving necessities: presents for my wife. Yes, I know that I had 364 other days to get this done. Yes, I should have done it during that time. No, I did not.
So out I went. More appropriately, out we went: me, my four-year-old, and my two-year-old. We had a few objectives in mind thanks to some pre-shopping online browsing. Our first stop was the game store to pick up a used copy of Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour for our GameCube. We like games we can play together. In stock and no waiting in line – so far, so good.
Next was Sam’s Club for a Poirot movie collection. On target, minimal waiting. We proceeded to Kohl’s, where we looked for some new clothes for mom. We saw some nice things, but the line was such that we would be waiting for at least 30 minutes to check out. Considering that my daughter refused to ride in the cart and my arm was getting quite tired, we left Kohl’s for one more stop.
This final gift stop was Borders, where we found a Gail Carson Levine book for Julie and a small book for the kids (after all, they had been pretty good). Done. Only one hour. Phew.
Julie called and asked us to stop at the local mega-mart for a few things, so thirty minutes later we were truly on our way home.
What kept eating at me this whole time was the fact that not so many years ago – when I was a child – you couldn’t go shopping on Christmas Eve. Nobody was open. Our lives are so totally out of control, and our procrastination skills so refined, that we can no longer accomplish these things prior to the day before Christmas. It is highly dissatisfying to wrap something at midnight that will be unwrapped less than 8 hours later. I would rather the gifts sit under the tree for a week or two.
My gift-giving resolution this year is to buy early. We’ll see how I do. The first trial is next Tuesday, Julie’s birthday.
Posted by Matt 
