Christmas shopping becomes considerably easier once you realize WHY it's so difficult to buy presents. There are two main questions with every possible present:
Key questions when shopping for gifts:
1. Would he like to own it?
2. Why doesn't he already?
Most gift ideas are discarded because of the first question - perhaps it's a pointless gift that the person would never in a million years buy for himself. Then he can't be too happy when someone else buys it for him and now he HAS TO own it.
This includes tacky clothing, "practical" objects that are too cheap to do what they're meant for, and objects that don't even try to be practical and just take up space for years to come. Few gift ideas get to the second question. Usually when you really do find something that the person would like to own, they already own it! If they don't already own it, it costs tons of money. 
You have to admit, there's always a tight budget when Christmas-shopping because there are just so many people who deserve a gift. So if it's something that the person would like to own and it's perfectly affordable, THEY USUALLY OWN IT ALREADY!This creates the first possible gift idea - upgrading. Some successful Christmas gifts that I've made or received include a new wallet, self-made dice bag, a casual blanket, good new mascara, etc. The recipient always already had the object but was happy to receive a better one. The reason the recipient hadn't bought a new one herself is practicality, "The one I have still kind of works".
The second category are things that you can never have too many of. The recipient already has it, but a new one will still be welcome. An example is jewellery. I have never seen anyone turn down a pair of earrings, "I already have a pair! 
". Same goes for books, eye shadows, and necklaces among other things.The rest of good presents are usually things people didn't realize to buy for themselves. They never knew they needed it in the first place. This category includes some books (e.g. recipes), cool gadgets, specialized hair products, etc. Perhaps they would have bought that hair product if only they had known how good it is. Or perhaps it's a nice thing except if you actually have to exchange it for perfectly good money. Keep in mind, this is the riskiest category and many things will end up collecting dust. On a rare occasion, if you buy a gift from this category, it could be the most positive surprise for your friend or a family member.
Once you master these two questions, Christmas shopping suddenly becomes so much easier. This year it was the easiest it has been in a really long time. Me and Erkki ran through the store answering those questions for objects that caught our attention, "She doesn't have this. She would use it if she had it. Great!"... "Look at this thing. He has a similar thing but it's such bad quality it doesn't really work. He could definitely make use of this one.", "Look! She doesn't have anything like this.... uhm, and I don't think she would ever get one for herself. Never mind.
". And in two hours time our Christmas was again stress-free because we had everything we were looking for. We did do quite a lot of brainstorming for gift ideas in the previous evening but nearly all the ideas were quickly either accepted or discarded, none pending for a long time.Now all that's left is to have our own HUGE Christmas. We didn't really plan for that either. We usually spend Christmas out of town with Erkki's aunt and other relatives, but this year we have recently moved and we have a small addition to our family so it seemed appropriate to get our own tree and spend Christmas Eve right here. We assumed everyone else's plan would be the same as each year but then a brand new Christmas plan started to unravel. Erkki's parents weren't planning to go out of town for Christmas so we invited them here. Then it appeared this place is much more accessible to Erkki's brother and his family. And then we found out Erkki's aunt and her family are also in town on Christmas Eve.
Basically it's the same people but a different location.This Christmas shows promise to be very fun and chaotic. We have 4 seats by the table and there will be 13 people at the party. This is not a problem though. If everyone brings a good mood along, I'm sure it will be a blast. At the very least, I'm convinced it won't suck.
The lack of space might even remove some tension and make the entire event less formal. We will share food list with others and most things will resolve at the last moment so we are not even pretending to plan everything in advance. We just need a decorated tree, a bird in the oven and something to drink.One thing that adds to my positive mood today is the fact that we made a huge step towards freedom. A little after morning coffee, I proposed to Erkki, "Let's move Siiri's bed to the other room!". The reasons for this are quite clear to Erkki because we have been talking about it more and more often. We even got her a cute cuddly toy puppy for feeling of security when she wakes up.
We hadn't decided what would be the best time but in the morning I decided the time has come. Yesterday evening we accidentally woke the baby while getting ready to go to sleep. I was quite tired at that time but apparently Siiri wasn't because it took me an hour to get her back to sleep. In the morning at 7 a.m I woke up, and again I was pretty sleepy, but apparently Siiri wasn't. She was playing and making as much sound as possible to make me wake up and keep her company.Amazingly moving her bed went very smoothly. We changed the location of everything that might be necessary in her room (except clothing for now). I was concerned that moving her diaper station with all the little things (from tissues to diapers) would be really tricky but all of it seems to be much more comfortably set in her new room. Baby slept two naps there already and I'm not expecting to have much trouble with her night sleep. Her bed is on wheels so if indeed she panics during the night and NEEDS to sleep in our room, I can just roll the bed back to it's previous location. With everything I've seen so far, I think she loves her new room and this step will help us all sleep better at night.
Another thing - last weekend Siiri got her third tooth: one of those upper middle teeth. She was slightly moody on Friday with no tooth in sight and on Sunday we were really surprised to see it had already cut though. This weekend she has been going from moody to enthusiastic and back, which might mean that the fourth tooth is almost here but perhaps I'm just being too hopeful.
I recommend you all to take it as easy as possible. Christmas is just Christmas. Enjoy the fun side and don't stress too much over the rest of it. Christmas will happen no matter what you do so don't plan too much and just enjoy the ride.
And Merry Christmas!
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