Gift Exchange

Coming from a large family, exchanging birthday and Christmas with every family member quickly got to be too expensive for most of us, so my sister proposed a gift exchange plan that we’re giving a try this year. She has put household names into a hat and drawn a match for each household. The gift giver has the option of buying a small gift for each person in that drawn household or buying one larger gift for the entire household to share and enjoy. she sent out an email this morning asking all of us to confirm our desire to participate in the gift exchange or we have the option of declaring amnesty and opting out. If we opt out then we won’t be receiving gifts from anyone in the family but we won’t have to buy any, either. But I decided we would participate so I confirmed with her and started thinking about ways to save money on the gifts.

It seems strange to be thinking about Christmas in August, but my sister wanted the different family members to have plenty of time to shop for bargains or possible craft or construct the gifts, so she will be drawing the names this weekend and letting us know our lot.

We have always enjoyed getting up early on Black Friday to start our Christmas shopping and we make a day of guerilla shopping. I’m sure you know that Black Friday is what they call the day after Thanksgiving. It’s big doings at all the malls and retail stores, as they viciously compete for your Christmas shopping money with special sales and secret specials on that day.

One thing I learned that will help us this year is the web site that lets us know what all the secret specials and black friday sales will be in advance of everyone else who has to wait for the Thanksgiving Day newspaper to find out. by finding out ahead of time we can plan our shopping day’s itinerary and give each family member their shopping mission before we head out of the door at 4:30 am on Black Friday. This site also sends out email alerts when sales are announced, so I’ve signed up and I’m gearing up for the world’s busiest shopping day already!

Family Photos

The kids came home from their first day of school full of chatter and excitement about their new classes, their new teachers, and all the friends they haven’t seen over the summer. They brought a pile of paperwork that needs to be filled out and signed and sent back in, often with a check attached. One of the things I wanted to see right away was the school calendar with all the holidays and vacation dates. Sorry to say, here it is August and I’m already thinking about December and Christmas vacation.

This year we won’t be seeing much of the family as we are going to go to the Bahamas for Christmas. Usually we all get together at my mother’s home for a dinner and gift exchange, and I’m sure they will all be disappointed that we aren’t coming, but I have a great deal on the Bahamas trips and that’s what my kids want to do, so that’s the plan. I just needed to know the dates of their school holidays so they don’t miss any school when I book the trip.

Since we won’t be seeing all the family this Christmas, I thought it would be nice to see out Christmas Photo Cards to everyone. That at least puts our face in front of them over the holidays, even though we won’t be there in person. Found a great web site to order the cards and they have two options for the types of cards you can order. One option is a designed frame and they print your photo right on the card frame. The other option is a photo holder where they printed the inside of the card and you insert your own photos right into the frame using double sided stickers or sliding the photo into the cut corners of the frame.

I have some snapshots of the family from our company picnic and our trip to the amusement park to look through for using on the photo cards, and if none of those work out well for a photo Christmas card, I can take some more with my digital camera until I get the right pose and the right shot. The web site has a link with tips on taking photographs using digital cameras and even cell phones. It’s always good to read through photo card taking tips - you never know when you’ll learn something new and useful.

Internationally Yours

When you work for an international company you must develop an increased awareness for the holidays and celebrations in other countries. As American’s we are used to the banking-type holidays, when the banks, the post office, government buildings and sometimes school will all be closed for the day. Then there are the cultural holidays, like Mother’s Day, Flag Day, even Thanksgiving, that are celebrated in America on certain dates but perhaps not observed in other countries on the same dates, if at all.

A good example is Father’s Day. In America, Canada, and the U.K. we all honor our fathers by celebrating Father’s Day on the third Sunday in June, every year. However, in Australia, Fathers Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in September.

With Father’s Day just a little over a month away, our friends in Australia are already shopping for gifts and planning their celebrations. A great site to shop for Fathers Day Gifts is DadShop.com.au and it’s not bad for ideas for Christmas gifts, either. Check it out. I can be Australian for the day if the urge to buy me something overcomes you!

Mixed Nuts

I love nuts. Good thing, considering where I work. Ha!

Nuts were always a Thanksgiving and Christmas treat. Something you put out in a big crystal bowl with a couple pairs of hinged nutcrackers. You would site out on the front porch or in the kitchen and crack the nuts and chit chat. It was a great way to keep your hands busy while your tongues wagged.

Now I buy them already out of their shells and vacuum sealed in a can with the Planter’s Peanut guy winking at you. I like the mixed assortment with less peanuts, but I do like peanuts, so it doesn’t really matter. I don’t think I can pick a favorite, it’s a 3 way tie for first place between cashews, almonds and pistachios.

Christmas Kiosk

Poking around the internet I found some interesting things that will help my son with his new business. He’s getting a start in retail by leasing a kiosk at the mall and selling gift items for Christmas. This is an ambitious undertaking but I am backing him all the way.

Even though it is a kiosk we are still concerned about inventory control and considering a bar code system to help track inventory but also to control item pricing. I found a web site called BarCode Discount that has a variety of barcode products, including barcode label software so we can generate our own barcodes on site. The site also has receipt printers, cash registers and other point of sale products.

We’ll have to sit down tomorrow and go over all this and work up the budget for fixtures and equipment.