Hi there Shiny ...
You got me thinking how on Christmas Eve CAW's side of the family gathers and exchanges gifts. Now the kids get all kinds of toys, but the adults use to exchange envelopes of money, which always cracked me up. Finally, one of them realized all they were doing was playing "musical" paper money, so then dropped it and now we just focus on the kids.

Gifts, was always one of CAW's strongest LL. One were over the years, I guess I would consistantly disappoint her. I mean I would alway look gift giving as being pratical rather than lavish. Instead of jewerly, I would give her a bathrobes and slippers. CD's rather books, because CD's you listen to over and over, where a book gets read once then sits on a shelf. A Timex watch vs. one from a jeweler. Get the idea? After a while, CAW stopped telling me what she wanted. When I asked, she always answers now "Nothing". Now last year was easy, because I had a backlog of things she asked for over the years, but now that I've gone thru that list ... I'm drawing a blank for the most part.

Another facet of this which has hurt lately, is CAW was big into gift giving until recently. Last year for Father's Day which was just a couple of weeks after she decided to "try", she gave me a 5 disc DVD player ... for my birthday, I had gotten a in-dash CD player for my truck, etc... This year ... Father's Day ... birthday ... Anniversary ... NOTHING ... not even a card.

She's already told me she not shopping for Christmas, so don't get her anything. I told her "Too late.", as I had already picked up the last item on that backlog list.

I already know, I'm gonna have to go into this holiday season with absolutely no expectation this year! ... but on the bright side, then it won't take much for me to be pleasantly surprise if she does decide to make an effort.

I had to laugh Shiny ... you'll annouce to the world! your bra size but won't even give us a hint about what you're gettin' CJ this year, not even a little one?

... and about the purse ... I don't think that's quite what is meant by ... "keep doin' what works"

Overall, Shiny you sound really good ... keep spreading the cheer ... there's a few of us here that are soaking it in.

'til later,
KAW