Trade Show Guru

What is the Ultimate Christmas Gift? I know, but I don’t know. How’s that for a riddle? Isn’t that just the kind of “huh?” answer you’d expect from a guru?

The ultimate Christmas gift is what you get for a person that already has everything they need. It’s the gift somebody needs but doesn’t know they need. What it is depends on the person receiving the gift as well as the person getting it.

I’m faced with this question of what to get my wife for Christmas. My wife does all the Christmas shopping (which I appreciate greatly), but obviously she’s not going to a gift for me to give to her. She wants me to do that, and I’m stumped. You see, I’m a practical person, and I want to get her something that she needs. The problem is that we do ok (if that’s really a problem…). It’s not that we don’t have wants, but we really don’t have needs, at least needs that can be met with a Christmas gift (for more on needs versus wants read what RT, the Master of the Philippines, has to say about Basic Budgeting). Perhaps I need to be less practical and broaden my horizons.

Although my wife has taken care of the Christmas gifts for our kids, I went to Home Depot and got parts to build a zip line to install in the back yard. Our kids don’t really need a zip line, but I know it’ll probably be one of their favorite gifts this year (I won’t tell my wife that wikipedia also calls a zip line a “death slide“). I’ll see if I can write a blog post about my home-built zip line in January.

But back to my wife. Should I get her a pair of goldfish-in-the-heel-zebra-striped-pimp-shoes [image removed but worth searching for on google images]? They can be found on eBay for about $50 plus shipping. I think they’re hillarious but something tells me my wife wouldn’t. I’m also pretty sure if I wandered over to the Redneck Bar and Grill and had Tim, the King of the Rednecks, whip me up a customized beer gift basket, my wife would think it was more for me than for her. Perhaps I should listen to an expert and consider some of the items on Lin’s Christmas gift list. Probably next year I should do a better job of planning ahead.

Well, I guess I still have about 8 days to think about it…

By the way, we watched a movie last night with a turtle guru in it who said something very insightful (and Christmas present related as well). The turtle guru said, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a Gift, which is why it is called the Present.” Just some guru stuff about treating each day like the gift it is and making the most of of, instead of worrying about the past or the future. Good advice I think. Carpe diem! Anyway, does anyone know what movie we watched?