I have demonstrated this year the worst Christmas gift planning of my life. Now typically, I am the type that keeps my ears peeled starting in the Spring for hints dropped here and there from family members regarding gifts they might like. In the past I've kept track of all these ideas in writing. There was even a year that I knit all the members of my dad's family scarves, and started the process in February. So you get the idea. Me + Chistmas gift planning= Done waaayyy ahead of time.
Well, this year I was caught a little off guard. Perhaps I've just been oblivious to the people around me and not listening enough to their thoughts on what makes them happy. Suddenly it was December, and not only did I have no gifts, but I had NO ideas. Needless to say, I panicked. I spent many weeknights scrolling through Amazon.com, page by page, hoping for some Eureka moment where I would conveniently come across my mother's gift. It didn't really end up that way. What made me feel like an even more self-absorbed inconsiderate person was the fact that I couldn't even think of things for my HUSBAND. With whom I LIVE.
After many days of frustration, my gift finding improved. My husband helped me with this, when he heard me freaking out about what to get different family members, and how I'm a bad wife, sister, daughter, etc. "Look," he said, "What is your dad into? He seems to like _____ recently. What about your sister? She's been into _____." It was like a gift buying therapy session that I desperately needed, and from then on my thinking cleared and things began coming a bit more easily. But dang, I did not enjoy the panic of not knowing what to buy people!

So back to the title of this post- I wanted to share with you a hilarious website that my sister- and brother-in-law found. The four of us have decided to pull names Secret Santa-style this year. And they found the site Elfster to help out with this task. Elfster is an online Secret Santa gift exchange organizer. It works a little like Evite.com, where we received an invitation to join the group that my sister-in-law had set up. Tomorrow evening we will all be emailed the name of the person that Elfster selects and for whom we need to get a gift. The budget was set for $1,000,000.50, which I somehow feel was my brother-in-law's influence. I also suspect that he was the one that then messaged the group anonymously to ask if coupons count as presents. Elfster is even sponsoring a conference call for the four of us tomorrow night to discuss whatever goofy criteria we apply to our gifts. We have a 1-800 number to call with an access code and everything. I think it's great!
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