It seems that no matter how early I start preparing for the holidays I am always faced with last minute shopping, wrapping and decorating. Each year I tell myself that I am going to be more organized yet it does not seem to happen. Last year I bought several holiday gifts during the summer months. I had ideas for several people including a Christmas gift for grandparents. I was so confident that I was ahead of the rush that I put off going shopping until the week before Christmas. By then the crowds were unbelievable and the merchandize was picked over. Many of the things that I had in mind to purchase were out of stock. I was left fending off crowds and having to think up new gift ideas.
The Christmas gift for grandparents seems to be the most difficult item to get. My grandparents are in their late eighties and live in assisted living situations. I have three grandparents that are still alive. They are so pleased when they get visitors and they seem to love getting presents. I have tried to be practical with some of the Christmas gift for grandparents that I have come up with, but each year it becomes more difficult. My one grandmother loves to send greeting cards. She still sends each of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren a card for their birthday and wedding anniversaries. This is over forty cards to send out annually. Last year I bought her boxes of all occasion cards as well as books of stamps. She was very pleased with this gift because it saved her a trip to the store to buy them. This year I was going to go with the same concept. I had seen a card organizer several months before the holidays that I thought would be my Christmas gift for grandparents. The organizer had a calendar for each month. You could circle the days of the month that had a birthday or anniversary. Then there was a pocket to place the cards in for the month. For example in there was three birthdays and an anniversary in January you would circle the 4 days and place the cards in the pouch to remind you to send them out. When I was shopping the week before Christmas I could not find the organizers any where.
The mall had a list of gift ideas for different categories of people on your shopping list. Under the heading of Christmas gift for grandparents there were two items fruit baskets and gift certificates. None of my grandparents still drive, so I knew that a gift certificate would not be a good idea, so I headed over to the grocery store to buy fruit baskets.
