We have reached one of the high points of the Christmas season, and I am going to stop for a moment and say that all the “THANKSGIVING FIRST!!” arguments do not reach me. I am a multi-tasker, and also I have a lot to do. Also, Thanksgiving is not much of a holiday: it’s one meal. It’s not as if I am going to use all of November to anticipate and work on Thanksgiving; I have the time NOW, so I am going to spend it NOW, so that I can enjoy the Christmas tasks instead of running full-tilt from Thanksgiving to Christmas trying to rush everything done. I always wonder, when I see “NOT NOW CHRISTMAS” posts, if those are by people who are not in charge of Making Christmas Happen at their house. Sure, I can wait for each holiday to be over before starting the next one, if all I have to do is sit in a comfy chair and enjoy someone else’s efforts!!

Anyway. Too much coffee and internet already today, clearly. Where was I? Oh yes: the kick-off of my Christmas season is when I get my Kid Assignments from our local food/clothing pantry, which runs a program every year so that families who are struggling to Make Christmas Happen can be paired up with families who have extra Christmas. I was nervous the first time I participated, but this is my fourth (?) year and now it is truly one of my favorite parts of the entire holiday season. Possibly my top-favorite kind of gift-shopping is this particular blend of high-pressure and low-pressure: it’s high pressure because what I buy might be a large part of what these kids get, so I want to get it right; but it’s low-pressure because I can’t possibly know what is right, I can only do my best to guess (and to provide gift receipts), based on the very limited (I think TOO limited) information I get from the organization. Each time I run into a Moment of Anxious Indecision, I can think “I can’t know; I can only choose what I think is best; I will include a gift receipt.” And then I pick what I think is best.

PLUS it justifies my belief that Christmas prep legitimately begins in November: the assignments are handed out in the first third of November, and the gifts must be dropped off by the first third of December, so that other volunteers can wrap them and deliver them to the hundreds of families who participate. People Who Get Christmas Done NEED November. If Thanksgiving is such an insurmountable hurdle in the U.S., let’s move it to October and celebrate it with our friend/neighbor/sibling Canada. I think that seems like a nice idea anyway.

BACK TO THE KIDS. I have been assigned two girls; one is early elementary school and one is late high school. For teenagers I tend to lean more toward the gift cards on their lists plus things that are easy to return; I also call in assistance from my kids, who can tell me about Brands and Cool and so forth. This particular teenager asks for silvery jewelry and nail stuff, and Elizabeth can be my consultant for both, and also I would welcome any input from you, if you have a teenager who likes similar things. I was thinking I would get a nail polish set from, like, Sephora? Or maybe Sephora is what Moms think is cool, and the kids like something else? Jewelry is even trickier, but I’ll get an assortment and a gift receipt. Does anyone know where the cool kids buy their jewelry these days?

Now, the younger one. She wants Pokemon cards and a Pokemon binder. I would like to buy her a good quality Pokemon card binder, with lots of extra pages. I am not sure whether to go for the four-cards-per-page format or the nine-cards-per-page format, and I am hoping some of you have card-collecting kids who can advise on all these things. I am especially hoping for advice on what is the best set of Pokemon cards I can buy. Like, the HOTTEST HOLIDAY CARD SET is what I want to get. Or, if that involves standing in line for hours or bidding on eBay, the SECOND HOTTEST holiday card set.