Yes, I've been known to be out there among the shopoholics at those wild hours between midnight and 6:00 a.m. just to get the perfect gift at an astoundingly low price. Often I was getting something for Megan (my daughter) and would feel all smug and super-mom like because I found the must-have item on her list on sale for nearly half the original price.

But this year it's been different. Maybe it's because surviving chemo and cancer have given me a new perspective on what are the most important gifts. (They're not the ones we can buy.) Or maybe it's because Megan said to me, "Mom, there's nothing I really need. And the things I want are things James and I are going to have to work toward getting ... like a home." 

Need, she said, not want. The times they are a changin'. This year we're all a little more serious but a whole lot more happy. (But those years when we had less stuff and yearned for something special under the tree on Christmas morning -- and then that something special was there! -- were magical.)

I'm having lunch today with my big sis at Ohio's oldest inn -- the Golden Lamb -- where the likes of Charles Dickens and past presidents have dined and slept. It's snow flurrying and we'll walk around the quaint town of Lebanon. I'm as happy as a shopoholic at 4:00 a.m. at a blue light special .

Hope your post-Thanksgiving day is a good one.

Peace and love,
 Patty