Long lasting Gifts

3 Shabby rose gift bags £3.75

Yesterday I needed to do some serious shopping and last night I completed most of it online. Hooray for the internet!

I visited the website of one of my favourite charities and bought 'gift' vouchers for lots of my family. In reality, my family members will receive a card letting them know that I made a donation in their name, but it is presented nicely as 'I bought you a goat' or 'some school meals'. Oxfam have been selling these gift vouchers for a few years now and I think that they are a splended idea.

A couple of years ago I bought my brother (who lives in America) a goat for his birthday and this year I have chosen something to go with his goat ~ I can't tell you what I've chosen as I know that he occasionally reads this blog.

So that's the most of my Christmas giving sorted out, just the rest of everything to sort out. Okay, so maybe that's hoping for a bit much, I don't think I can sort out sqabbling politicians or disasters caused by freak weather conditions or even the volume of chewing gum stuck onto the pavements of every street that I walk on, but I could attempt to organise the chaos in my house in readiness for mum's visit and our short break from work.

We don't, afterall, want to spend our Christmas day sitting amongst the debris that is still at home following our move of work to the new unit, nor do we need to be moving bits of computer off the dining room table just to be able to eat our meals. Those things I can address, those things are do-able.

I think I may need to invest in a tumble dryer before Christmas, when our last one broke I thought as it was just Dave and I at home, that we could probably get our clothes dry on the radiators without too much bother and we could... if I was super-dooper organised about all things domestic. My relationship with domesticity has sadly come to an end and I just can't bear the thought of another week with our undies draped across radiators. More to the point, I haven't yet worked out how you dry a duvet cover for a super-king size duvet on a little radiator quickly enough that it doesn't get that dreadful 'I didn't dry quickly enough' smell about it ~ any tips?

Well, it's almost time to start the day's work and Dave is still in the land of nod. I had better go and do and the 'we're supposed to be at work in five minutes' routine with him.

If you want to visit Oxfam's website and have a look at their range of gifts, you can find them at http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/Browse.aspx?catalog=Unwrapped&category=UWGifts

Chat soon, Liz