Christmas Cover

Well the wife and I have just survived walking the annual Christmas party gauntlet. After two office parties and three family Christmas parties, we are ready to relax with each other looking at lights and listening to carols. Please don't get me wrong, I very much enjoyed hanging out with both my and her office friends and I especially enjoyed being with and catching up with family. We had both the old conversations of:"Boy, you sure have grown!" as well as the new of: "Merry Christ... I mean Happy Hanuk... ahhhh, Happy Holidays!". One of the best things that happened has to be that we got the kid's gifts right for once. Nothing like watching a kid you are related to actually tear into your gift and then enjoy it throughout the morning; very satisfying. For the adults however, we got all the same thing: $25 gift cards. Oh there was an attempt at getting them to the right place, but yeah they got gift cards. Wanna guess what the most common thing we got as a gift this year? Don't think to hard, you probably bought a bunch of them this year too.
So, for the most part, the adult gift exchange consisted of handing each other $25 gift cards. It really just felt like a cover charge to get into the party. I mean we bought 12 cards this year and got several back. Basically it was a wash. Don't tell my wife this though. She spent several hours and you can do the math on the dollars all just to get about the same thing back. This is why only kids should get gifts. Now I am not saying that men get off the hook of getting you ladies those much coveted dishwashers or vacuums (you know they are coming ladies) but as for family Christmas parties silly rabbit, gifts are for kids. That or possibly a gift ACKNOWLEDGEMENT exchange. "Thanks for upgrade on that drill set back in June Bob, it worked out great."