With Christmas approaching, my wife and I once again were faced with the difficulty of buying a cadre of Christmas gifts for my nieces and nephews. We often have particular trouble with one of my nephews, who is a middle child. He generally says that he doesn’t want anything for Christmas and, when forced, he

Now that the Christmas shopping season is upon us, many of us are wondering what on earth we should get for people in our family. “What do I buy for my ultra-trendy teenage niece?” you might be wondering, or “How can I get something that will wow Uncle Ron without breaking the bank?” Interestingly enough,

Each year, our families have a cyclical Christmas tradition. On Veteran’s Day weekend, everyone makes a list of five to ten things that they want for Christmas that year with the majority of the items less than $20. It’s not so much a list of things that we expect to get for Christmas, but a

Recently, the subject of cash gifts came up between my wife and I. Her grandparents both give us moderately sized cash gifts each year (between $50 and $1000, to give a range) as a Christmas gift. In years past, we have almost immediately spent these gifts on some sort of material item, often contributing some