Tis the season

Wow, more than a month since my last post. Usual excuses apply: work’s been taking up too much of my free time, lot’s to do around home. Oh, and I got my appendix taken out.
I have been doing a lot to get ready for Christmas. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year seems really short and a week of that was taken out by the meeting that took me to Cancun for the week. Surprisingly, shopping has been really easy this year. I can remember year’s past really worrying about what to get various people on my list, most especially my wife and kids. This year however, despite the compressed time, it’s been really easy: I’ve been buying things that they all need. I’m sure it’s some of the sour news that is impossible to avoid, but this year I’m not looking to make the big impression, or looking for the ‘wow’ when it gets opened. Am I alone here? I know there’s a lot of folks reining in spending, but who else is changing how and what they buy?