I confess, I succumbed to the need to do something about the mess that is my office. I bought some brackets and boards and put up a nice-sized set of shelves and put lots of books up (there used to be two small book cases actually standing on the back of my desk against the wall--it worked for books but truncated my work space). Now I have more books out (it's a pleasure to see so many old friends up there!) and more work space.

We have several sewing projects left over from last year that will be hopefully finished this year over the holidays. We made some necessary and discretionary purchases during the year that they knew in advance would count toward "early christmas" gifts (a mother/daughter trip last summer that was worth every penny) and a computer for the kids (they contributed a large chunk of change toward that purchase by putting stuff in a garage sale, and the proceeds went to the purchase).

They know it won't be a christmas with tons of stuff, but heck, my daughter still has a bag of things on the floor in her room from LAST year that she still hasn't done anything with. Why waste money on gifts that never get used and are barely acknowledged? Some of this came from distant relatives who had to guess at what she might like, others just haven't been needed yet. But this year we're going to use more money on the things we do together (meals, movies, museums) and less on the stuff under the tree.

SRS