Christmas Bender - It is better to give than receive

I am a last minute shopper, and I have a very good reason. You see, I love to give gifts at Christmas, LOVE to give rather than receive, this presents a problem when our bank account starts to dwindle from my love of GIVING! One Christmas I decided that I was going to do all my shopping early, and spend the week before Christmas break sitting in front of the fire congratulating myself on how organized I was. Things went very well when I did all my shopping, found the PERFECT gift for everyone on my list AND even had them wrapped. I arrived at the week before Christmas Break full of pride at my Christmas organization and thought about that hot toddy in front of the fire. Then I went on what my husband called a “Christmas Bender,” you see I had bought such a PERFECT gift for everyone on my list that I couldn’t wait until Christmas for them to open it. I “accidentially” put some REALLY COOL gifts I’d purchased for my children in their bathroom for them to find, then acted dismayed that they’d opened them –and of course, loved the stuff I’d picked out. My girlfriend got hers early because I knew that she’d love to wear it to the next race we had coming up and unfortunately it was BEFORE Christmas. After this bender, I had a dilemma, I gave away everything I’d just shopped for and now WHAT WAS I GOING TO GIVE FOR CHRISTMAS! Out I had to go shopping again but luckily for everyone on my list, I had such a creative mind that I found another really cool set of gifts for my list, things that were BETTER than what I just gave away. My husband stood at the door looking at my arms loaded with bags and held out his hands. “Hand them over,” he said. “What?” How could I part with these perfect gifts? “Give them to me, you’ll give them away again and we’ll have to take out a second mortgage to cover Christmas this year,” he muttered. “But I won’t do that, honest. Just this one thing for you,” I started to reach into the bag. With the nimbleness of knowing that it was going to hit his wallet, he takes all the bags from me before I can pull anything out and walks away with them, I start to follow he stops and turns, “You go somewhere else, I’m going to hide these until Christmas Eve when the shops are closed.” I feel like the addict wondering what am I going to do with 5 days and no presents to give out? “But, I mean, don’t you want me to wrap them?” He replies, “You can wrap everything Christmas Eve. Don’t move.” I watch him go into the garage, calculating in my mind all the possible places he could hide them in there, I have a good guess of where if I find the need to look for them – just to wrap them. Of course, he didn’t know about the special present still in my car for him, so to appease my addiction to Christmas giving I follow him saying, “Look at this big box, don’t you want to know what’s in it? It’s the PERFECT present for you!” Watch out for that Christmas Bender, buy your presents early, wrap them and hide them----just don’t forget where you hid them come Christmas Eve otherwise you’ll be out with the rest of humanity on Christmas Eve fighting the mall traffic! Ever find that perfect present and can’t wait to give it to the one you love?