Weeee! I'm almost done with my Xmas shopping for this year! One more trip tonight and that should do it. My dad clued me in to a great shortcut for holiday wrapping, using those pretty decorative bags. He also told me he got his at the dollar store. I thought, yuck, I don't want to buy stuff at the dollar store (I'm a giftwrap snob). But I haven't found any bags for wine, etc. that I liked this year (for less than $5), and lo and behold, they had tons of them, for a buck apiece...

OK, I'm spoiled and ignorant (and like everyone else this year, really broke). I had to ask the girl that was stocking things "How much are these?" and she gave me a weird look and said "A dollar...". I just wanted to make sure, you know? A lot of things had price tags on them for $2 and $3 and I didn't want to be presumptuous and walk up to the register with a dozen bags and just "assume" they really were a dollar each.

My husband and I have been alternating playing post office hell this week. I think we've each spent about 2 hours there in the last few days. We have to go 3 or 4 times a week year round, but during the holidays it's teeth-grinding fun, trying not to shout out "You idiot! You don't even have a single label written!!" to the person with a stack of gift-wrapped department store boxes who is pulling them out one at a time asking the poor postal clerk "Do you have a box that will fit this?". I always feel worry for the clerks that have to deal with all of the "It's how much??" questions, I get asked that every day by new Ebay bidders who can't read my really carefully thought out auction descriptions (which include postage prices).

Getting dark, time to go back out and eat dinner, probably some really low brow Mexican food (we have a coupon!), and then on to the liquor store, where I'll probably end up buying myself a too-expensive bottle of Port along with our gifts. It was 80 degrees yesterday here in lovely Houston, and now it's down to almost freezing again (at night, at least). I always forget each year how much I hate the cold. During a 100 degree August day, a little bit of cold weather actually sounds good...