Policing my Christmas List

It’s December and I received my first Christmas card of the year over a week ago. As usual, it’s from my aunt Doris, who unlike me is always ready for everything in good time.

It’s time to talk about my Christmas list. My family distributes lists of the presents they’d like for Christmas, to each other. For some, it seems to be easy. I scratched my head, thought a lot, and laboured mightily. Eventually I had a list worthy of the name that I could send out.

Now this list idea has at least three advantages:

1) We get what we want.

2) We don’t end up staring at a present we don’t like or want thinking, “what the flippin’ heck am I supposed to do with this and how on Earth can I get rid of it?”

3) Going down the shops to find the gifts, a task I’m always glad to get finished, is just so much easier.

Before I start the Ordeal By Shopping, I work out my best route based on distance walked and weight of purchase, then I just go and do it. Quickly. Efficiently. Morosely. With luck, I finish the shopping in one day.

Naturally, there’s a few books on my list, and here’s a couple of them. Since I haven’t seen these books yet, I’m going to give you excerpts from previous books in the two series, to give you a flavour of the books. You can't beat a new book to read on Christmas morning.