Thanks forasking Mz, you're always so on the ball with this stuff! I don't think I can swing it this year, as much as I would like to - $$ is a little too tight right now for my comfort.

we should do a kwanza exchange instead for the 26th.
I have elderly sock puppets for all.
some are black, some are white. But all have a story of hardship to share. been beaten down by life.

Looks like a resounding no. I'm not much on the holiday spirit either. Oh well...

Just for the tally, I'll add a "no" too.

My favoirte Christmases (in my adulthood), have been those when we've been broke. We always managed to make them "magical" -- well, to ourselves anyway.

For instance, our first Christmas in Oklahoma we were so broke, we didn't even have lint in our pockets. We lived in a rent house that the front picture window bowed out from the way the house settled; we hung a blanket over the front door because there was a half inch gap bewteen the door and the frame; there was only one wall unit to heat up the house; every other month we had a utility cut off notice, but always managed to keep them on. Oh, and we were on food stamps (best damn eating I ever did was on food stamps).

So, getting back to that Christmas -- 1988 -- not all that long ago, but seems like another life. Like standing outside and looking in... Yep, we were broke. We were driving home from my sister-in-laws about a week before Christmas, and were talking about how beautiful their tree was, and Maranda asking why we didn't have a tree, and before I could come up with some white lie, I saw something glistening from our headlights in the ditch. I told my hubby to pull over, and to our delight was an abandoned Christmas tree with a few strands of tinsel. It was very short, but full -- full of possibilities. We threw it in the back of the truck, took it home, hosed it off and took it inside. My dad had just sent us some coyote light ornaments that he'd made our of wood and painted different colors (I still have them), and the next day, I made cardboard coyote ornaments which I glued shiny foil wrapping paper to for tree ornaments (which I still have), and we had a "Coyote Christmas"

That was our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree, and although we've never picked out tree out of a ditch again, no other tree has ever compared....

Does it really need to be a "purchase"? Can you barter your skill whatever it may be, fix somebody's computer, car, make some food and what you can get in trade=gift. Mz can do an artistic piece. Web has something to offer. Jeremy is crafty. JD is talented/connected.
Trade music. White Elephant (re-gift) is fun.
Ya'll been together for some time now.