Christmas gifting....

 I realized today that my Christmas gift giving practices have really changed over the years.  In olden days, when my grandchildren were much younger, I would take each of them individually on a "shopping spree" after Christmas, and after they had seen what the other grandparents had given them and knew what they still wanted.  The rules were that we would shop wherever they chose. I would treat them to lunch sometime during the day, they had a set amount of money to spend, and I would never rush a decision or tell them to hurry up. I regretted that policy once when one of my granddaughters opted to spend five long hours in an antiques mall, but a deal is a deal. I have three granddaughters and one grandson.  Over the years the grandson led me to places like Chucky Cheese to eat pizza and play games and Home Depot to buy a soldering iron or other similar equipment, while the granddaughters loved the mall where shopping evolved over the years from Build a Bear to Claire's Boutique to Victoria's Secret, and sometimes beyond to the Good Will store. But almost always, I'm happy to say, one of our stops would be a book store. Fun times indeed.  Then, just as the grands seemed to be aging out of the shopping sprees, the pandemic struck and suddenly all of the shopping was on line.  Now, they are off to college or busy with their jobs and on line shopping has become the norm.  They send me lists, with links so I know just how to order things, I buy the gifts and, depending on what the holiday schedule looks like, either have them shipped to my apartment so I can wrap and present them (which is still the most fun) or simply have the gifts shipped directly to them.  We still have fun when we all get together but it's not the same as those shopping sprees.  And shopping has gotten too easy.  I found myself thinking today that I will just buy gifts for everyone on line, have them shipped, and avoid the mall and post office or UPS store altogether.  And then a happy memory flashed through my mind, as memories sometimes do.  What I'm doing now is not so very different than when I was a child and my brothers and I would pour over the wonderful big fat Sears Christmas catalog, mark the gifts we wanted and hand over the catalog to our parents who ordered gifts from our list.  Different technology but the same basic idea, so now I'm not feeling guilty at all.