Black Friday is too late!

Yuppers, Black Friday is too late.  I already bought my Christmas present.  You see, we have this van and the passenger door panel has been popping lose and catching every time the door is opened.  John keeps "whacking" it back on, and if it didn't get permanently fixed pretty soon, I was gonna whack him.  Well, his whole workshop of tools is back home.  (Have I told you that he builds furniture for fun?  Sofa tables, end tables, microwave tables on casters, free-standing chess boards, solid-Cherry and glass what-not cabinets... even a four-poster bed made from pine trees he cut down from our forest.)  Anyway, his lifetime collection of tools is back in Texas, so, rather than whack him, I bought ME a cordless screw driver/drill for Christmas.  I have wanted one ever since I bought one for one of our grandsons.  It's not the big ol' man-size kind, but small enough to fit in my hand, not wear out my arm holding it up, and a lithium battery that holds its charge for up to 18 months when not in use.  So, John took my Christmas present and, for his gift to me, FIXED THE DOOR PANEL!  (Saved himself a whacking, too.)

And John is asking to get HIS Christmas present next weekend:  a 3-day trip back to Gettysburg like we did Philadelphia.  He really loves the Civil War things - has for years.  While we were in Kauai, Borders Books closed their store there.  John took advantage of that and bought a $75 book on the Civil War for $9.97.  (THAT'S the kind of shopping he likes to do!)  It's over 400 pages long, and he's been reading it almost every night since we came to Virginia.  Everything he's ever read about the War has been coming to life for him as we have gone around to these different battlefields - and more is revealed to him with every trip.  (Now he's getting pretty interested in the American Revolution, too.)

So, Black Friday is too late.  Christmas gifting is already done for us. Well, there are still the kids and grandkids ...