The older simpler days of giving a scarf or mittens or a sled are over. Everyone wants technology gadgets. You can't give household things because people already have them or they are more choosy about kitchen, household, and personal items that they want specifically. The problem is that now with internet and huge stores and even much larger selections of products, we each can choose from a countless and lot of possibilities for each item. Plus most people go out and buy those items themselves. 
I am in a real dilemma of what to get people this year. Let me give you some cases. My mom wants a special set of serving dishes and she already purchased it yesterday in an early Black Friday special. My nephews presently have more electronic games than they can even play and my brother buys them the newest one immediately when it comes out. My sister wanted first-class luggage and told me yesterday at Thanksgiving dinner that she found one online and has already purchased it for herself. My dad was up early this morning to buy new power tools for us for Christmas and I just know that he bought himself one of each too. The last few years I asked my family at Thanksgiving for lists and that truly helped me. Yesterday at Thanksgiving dinner no one was able to come up with a list of stuff. This has been a increasing issue over the years. I don't have as much time to shop and I detest to fight the crowds. My wife and I decided to go to a theme holidays and buy everybody something by the theme of the year. One year while at a nearby book shop we started buying books and then went to a giant box book store to pick up not only books but calendars and games and they even wrapped a lot of them for us. It turned out to be quite expensive but it did work. The next year we had been so busy that we just went to the food market and bought gift cards for everyone. That was totally easy but it was pretty detached and we didn't have time or want to take the effort to wrap them, so we ended up feeling cheap when we handed people just an envelope. Plus it wasn't cheap in the long term and the thank you letters proved that people got our gift cards and amounts mixed up with other people's gifts. They liked them and could use them but we noticed that we forgot to use our gift cards or lost them which was a total waste of money. In fact it was published that stores really like gift cards because so many people never use them or find them beyond the expiration date or lose them. The next year we individualized it a bit more and purchased food and restaurant coupons we thought each person would love. It was fine. Yesterday my wife and I were complaining about the fact that gift giving has merely become a gift card exchange and lost its whole luster and objective. We lost for the past days of taking time to shake and open packages or people excited about something they have been wanting realized in a gift. Those days are no longer . People go online and just buy what they really want. A lot of her family members are restructuring and do not need more things. When they need or want something they go buy exactly what they want and our gifts are either regifted or go to Salvation Army. This year we want to make an impression. Quite honestly we are usually doing our shopping at the last minute. We went online last night and decided we are going to either order or go out and fight the crowds today and do our shopping. This year we want our gift to be the very first one people get. So for the friends and colleagues and extended family we won't see, we found a website and local company right here in Denver called Baskets by Rita. There are all kinds of holiday baskets to send. We ordered online those baskets to be sent as soon as they can. Will they ever be pleasantly surprised. Not only will ours be the first one there, but the packaged baskets are wrapped so nicely with holiday ribbons that will probably be put on exhibit in their house as a decoration. It was so easy. We are done and don't have to agonize about those gifts. Then we talked about going to our relatives houses for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and we want to take the gifts ourselves so we didn't order baskets to be sent to their houses. Then we had a great idea. Why not order those gift baskets and have them delivered to our house and then we will have them to take. We are excited because we can walk in with a gift that is WOW and that is not the common mail order basket from the big companies. The baskets we are ordering today for loved ones are filled with gourmet food items and that is just fine. Plus we decided that is one of the only things people don't buy for themselves. My mom just goes out and buys fresh flowers when she wants them. But none of us order a gift basket for ourselves. Perfect. We are placing the order today and guess what? We can now rest. We will have sent and gotten the gift baskets even before December l. That buys us not only gifts but the whole freedom of not scrambling. The gift baskets to take Dec. 24 and Dec. 25 will be on display on the shelves in my home office ready to go. This year we will go to holiday parties and watch other people worry while we are eating out, going to movies, holiday parties and relaxing. Not only is Baskets by Rita doing all the work of buying, wrapping, and sending the gifts, but it turned out to be less expensive than what we usually spend because we already paid for shipping, wrapping and bows and all the extra costs that go up each year. Ideal. We are placing the order today and guess what? We can now rest. We will have sent and gotten the gift baskets even before December l. That buys us not only gifts but the total freedom of not scrambling. The gift baskets to take Dec. 24 and Dec. 25 will be sitting on the shelves in my home office ready to go. This year we will go to holiday parties and watch other people stress out while we are eating out, going to movies, holiday parties and relaxing. Not only is Baskets by Rita doing all the work of buying, wrapping, and sending the gifts, but it turned out to be less expensive than what we usually spend because we already paid for shipping, wrapping and bows and all the extra costs that go up each year.
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