humor

My Little Advice Shop: Men and Holiday Shopping

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Brown Paper Packages Tied up with String
Image by Chiot’s Run via Flickr

We know. You hate holiday shopping. Women expect the world, so you roll Santa Style and try to find it for her on Christmas Eve. These days, there’s a better way, and it makes you look like a rock star under the tree. The key? Keeping an eye on the magazines and websites your honey likes.

  • All sorts of publications do “gift guides” in the December issue of their magazine/paper. Real Simple is a magazine with terrific taste, and detailed gift ideas for the different people in your life. The newspapers do them too, so keep an eye out.
  • Another option is a website like Red Envelope. They offer a curated selection of gifts to choose from as opposed to wandering the Internet, overwhelmed by choices. Their sale section has some great stuff right now.
  • Shop early, as featured items can sell out. Then relax, and wave at Santa as he goes by, instead of trying to keep up.   Shop nice, y’all!
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Once Upon a Time, at the Dining Room Table…

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Photo of a dining room table piled with objects
Don't let clutter kill your fairy tale romance!

We dined, once, at our dining room table.  Then we got engaged. Suddenly piles of bridal magazines, boxes of invitations, and a flower girl basket took up residence.  Don’t let it happen to you.

“Why?” you may ask. “All that lovely flat space for storage.  Certainly a few months of dinner elsewhere won’t kill us.”  And you’re right – but it does, eventually, kill the romance in a relationship.  Normally romance doesn’t come easy, or cheap, but there is nothing so simple and special as to sit across from each other, light a few candles, and have a meal.  It doesn’t matter if you are eating frozen waffles on paper plates.  There’s something in the quality of the light that makes you both remember why you got engaged, married, pinned, whatever.

So watch one of those HGTV clutter busting shows, and keep that dining room table clear for some romance.  Sunday nights are perfect for a lovely dinner, but at the table – not in front of ABC’s promising new show…Once Upon a Time.

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Ready, Set, G…wait a minute. Who said anything about ready?

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“Are you ready?” Brides and event planners alike field this question as the wedding day approaches. What does that mean, ready? For the bridal magazines ready means every last detail settled. Bows tied, programs printed, Every I dotted, each t crossed.

One night, working a movie premiere party everything went wrong during set up, but we were finally back above water. Good thing too, as guest arrival was within the half hour.
I looked at my co worker, a more seasoned planner than I, by about 20 years, both of us still in our sweaty work clothes. “Are we ready? I asked. “ready?” he smiled, “we don’t open the doors because we’re ready. We open the doors because it’s the time they printed on the invitation.”

What do they call you if your ceremony's not perfect? Blissfully, happily, married.

There is no perfect.  There is no ready.  Let go of the oversized expectations, and pick up a champagne flute.  Always be ready for champagne.

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