I came home and then mostly finished the wrapping. There are only a few small items left to do. The sibling presents (minus the 15-year-old’s since he ordered online for delivery today or tomorrow) are under the real, more informal tree (my kids call this the “tree of the people.”). The family presents for Christmas day are under the “fancy tree”  (the fake one with all white/silver/gold lighting and ornaments). My extended family’s presents are in my office, to be taken out when they show up this weekend.

I’m thinking maybe next year a goal could be to finish more of the shopping earlier. I start to feel more relaxed about Christmas when everything is procured and wrapped. So if this was done at Thanksgiving, December could mostly be about experiences.

Easier said than done of course, as people change their minds about their Christmas lists, and there are more gift-oriented items on sale by December. But something to think about.

In the meantime, here is a currently-unnamed sonnet. Looking for something catchy as a title!

Before the stars, before the planets set
into their orbits, which define a day
and year, then what was time? The alphabet
came after words, one could still chance to say

“I love you” never knowing what was “v”
or “l” or what it meant to write a thought.
These constructs come after the thing, we see
our rules imposed on things existing not

because of rules — and yet, how good to know
that if we say we’ll meet at 3 p.m.
at the appointed point of spin we’ll go
to our shared spot on earth and on a whim

we’ll write each other notes, sweet nothings, such —
these lines that mean so little and so much.

I managed to succeed in completing my list (mostly). In theory, this online shopping should have saved me time. However, as I’m looking over what I’ve purchased, I’m not sure I came out as far ahead as I thought I would. Here’s why:

1. I used work time to shop. When I put on my coat and go to a store, I know I’m not working. But as I’m editing a column, it’s easy to pop over to Amazon and… next thing I know, I’ve lost a big chunk of a workday. Since I’m paying for babysitting during my work hours, this time doesn’t come cheap.

2. Abundant choice is excruciating. Often, you just want a nice present for a person. You don’t want to compare all products under the sun to find the absolute perfect thing (at least I don’t). In the past, I’ve sometimes just gone to Target and walked out with the smaller things I’m getting for everyone on my list. Online, I’ve been all over the place.

3. And then there are online screw-ups. I won’t name the particular retailer, as they did make amends and were very sweet about it. But I tried to order two of the same plant online for two people from a site that was offering 30% off on that particular day. I entered addresses and gift messages, only to have the system claim at check-out it had lost my information. So I went through and did it again. Same problem.

I called customer service, and a rep entered my addresses and gift messages, which was a bit excruciating to dictate over the phone. Unfortunately, as soon as she got them in, her computer had the same problem! So she had to put me on hold several times as she figured this out. Finally, she learned that we could go over to a sister site which had the same product to re-enter the information. But she couldn’t just cut and paste so I had to dictate everything again.

Then, as we were nearing the end, my phone (which I’d been on for 40 minutes by that time) died.

I wound up going to the sister site myself and putting the info in successfully, though their shipping charges were higher and they didn’t offer 30% off. The first retailer offered to give me a rebate for that. So I’m not out any money. I’m just out an hour of my life. That’s probably less time than it would have taken me to buy a present in a store and mail it at the post office, but we’re not talking an order of magnitude different.

What do other people think? Have you shopped online this year? Did it save you time or money?

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