I am writing this column on Sunday.
That means it’s a week until Labour Day, just over two months to Halloween – and exactly four months to Christmas.
And I haven’t even started my shopping yet!
OK, I may be overreacting a bit here. For one thing, I have yet to receive any gift suggestions from the people I buy for in my immediate family in Prince George, and our family hasn’t done the gift exchange draw yet.
With the size of the family growing, a few years ago it was decided that instead of buying for everyone else in the family, we would throw all the names into a hat and draw one to buy a somewhat larger gift for.
The first year, there were a few problems (which was to be expected). The person running the exchange, which is an online program called Elfster, had not been aware you could put restrictions on as to who each person could draw.
I figured something was amiss when I was informed I was getting a present for Mom. Well, I was already getting a present for Mom, so it didn’t seem to make much sense to get her two.
I got in touch with the organizer and found out I wasn’t the only person who had this problem.
Very soon, everyone got an email telling them not to rush right out and buy a gift for the person they had been told to.
Shortly after that, we got another email with a different name on it as our gift recipient, and everything (as far as I know) has worked well since then.
That usually happens in a couple of months to allow time for shopping, wrapping, and shipping the gifts
Of course, the other things we’ve noticed for both Christmas and birthday presents for the immediate family in Prince George is there tend to be a lot of gift cards.
They make sense, since you don’t have to worry that you’re buying the person a book, say, which they already have.
I would like to take the opportunity to wish all the best to Corey Walker, a fellow volunteer at CFIS radio. Corey is starting a new job in Dawson Creek, which means his shows on CFIS will be on hiatus for a couple of months while he gets settled in.