Could you use a little gift-giving advice this time of year? I figured as much, so I thought I would share some of my time-honored tricks and traditions that are sure to help you this holiday season: <\/p>\n
\u2022 A couple years ago, my brother and I were sitting somewhere when we both turned to each other at the exact same moment and blurted out, \u201cHow about we stop giving each other Christmas presents \u2026 FOREVER!\u201d It was probably during a drunken fight, but with a quick handshake we cemented the most brilliant holiday tradition ever imagined: the \u201cbrother I love you, but ain\u2019t buying you nothing for Christmas\u201d tradition. It\u2019s a way of getting back to the reason for the season, and eliminating at least one person from the shopping list. It works for us and might just work for you.
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\n\u2022 Speaking of booze, if you need holiday gifts for family, friends and even co-workers, making your own alcoholic beverages can be a real hit. A couple years back I learned how to make Kahlua from my barber. (Listen, if you\u2019re not learning stuff like this during your haircut, find another place for a trim.) Anyway, she made kahlua brownies and I managed to mooch one or two. I walked out of that barbershop stinkin\u2019 drunk and not minding a bit my new Mohawk.
\nSince that fateful day I\u2019ve been making my own liqueurs for Christmas \u2014 first kahlua, and last year my own version of Bailey\u2019s Irish Cream. I made my own labels and called it, \u201cBrian\u2019s Original I Can\u2019t Believe It\u2019s Not Bailey\u2019s Irish Cream.\u201d After all the lawsuits and a raid by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, it was still worth it just to see the smiles on everyone\u2019s faces.
\nThis year I\u2019m going to take it up a notch and produce what I plan to market as, \u201cBrian\u2019s \u2018Rub-a-dub-dub I Made it in the Bathtub\u2019 Gin.\u201d If people don\u2019t die from an implosion of the liver, it\u2019s sure to be big. <\/p>\n
\u2022 Make sure you take a day off from work so you can dedicate some serious time to your shopping. That way you can hit a mall or some shops without pressure, take in the holiday season, see some decorations, and all before failing to buy anything for anyone else. Well, other than yourself, that is. Ever notice how this happens? You drop in at Williams-Sonoma only to find that everything is way more expensive than you planned to spend. BUT not that Le Creuset enameled cast iron pot, which is priced perfectly for under your own tree. Remember the old adage: It is better to give to yourself than to receive. <\/p>\n
\u2022 Be careful, especially driving. Little known fact: Holiday shopping has the same impairing effect on drivers as eight alcoholic drinks mixed with a failed anger management course. They will fight you for parking spots. They will drive their cars straight into the store and ask if a wreath is still on sale. And they will run over their own foot for a holiday deal. Be safe, people!<\/p>\n
\u2022 Make sure you put all of your shopping ideas on one neat, organized and centrally-located list. That way it\u2019s easier to doom your entire day of shopping when you head out and forget it at home. And if you do remember your list, make sure your wife puts it on a big, official looking legal pad so when she hands it to you so she can try on a pair of jeans, employees mistake you for some goofy store inspector and ask, \u201cDid you come to fix the stopped up toilet?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u2022 People get pushy and rude this time of year. It can be stressful in a down economy, especially when their favorite perfume is all sold out. So be understanding when faced with this rudeness. Bring some holiday cheer back with a smile and maybe a heartfelt comment like, \u201cThe upside of all that coal in your stocking is heating costs are at an all-time high.\u201d <\/p>\n
Help put the merry back in Christmas and good luck with all that shopping. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Could you use a little gift-giving advice this time of year? I figured as much, so I thought I would share some of my time-honored tricks and traditions that are sure to help you this holiday season: \u2022 A couple years ago, my brother and I were sitting somewhere when we both turned to each other at the exact same moment and blurted out, \u201cHow about we stop giving each other Christmas presents \u2026 FOREVER!\u201d It was probably during a drunken fight, but with a quick handshake we cemented the most brilliant holiday tradition ever imagined: the \u201cbrother I love you, but ain\u2019t buying you nothing for Christmas\u201d tradition. It\u2019s a way of getting back to the reason for the season, and eliminating at least one person from the shopping list. It works for us and might just work for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[122,131,123,129,130],"class_list":["post-612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2010-nutshells","tag-christmas","tag-gift-giving","tag-gifts","tag-holidays","tag-shopping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":649,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions\/649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}