Sorry for my unexpected week long absence! I'm spending time with family for the holiday season and anticipated being out of touch for a few days, but some how a few days slightly out of touch turned into an entire week with no wireless or reliable cell service. I've been doing absolutely nothing but eating Reese's Cups, making Christmas cookies, playing iPad solitaire, doing crosswords and watching Gilmore Girls. It's been pretty freaking awesome.
But I've missed wireless and I've missed my blog! I'm super happy to be back :)
I would like to take a moment to write about something that would have been of much more use to you had I written about it a month ago. I didn't write about it because I've always just assumed that this was something everybody already knew about. But lately, I've realized how many people have no clue what they are missing out on.
My friends, with 3 days to go before Christmas, I am going to tell you about the Amazon Wishlist.
I'm a scrooge this year. I'm not going Christmas crazy. That's no secret. But even when I am in the Christmas spirit, there's still one little phrase that rears it's ugly little head every December that drives me absolutely nuts:
"What do you want for Christmas?"
I. Hate. That. Question. I'm not one who wants for much. And when I do want something, I tend to go out (or online) and buy it. And there's often research involved. So when someone asks me that question, I never have an answer. It makes me frustrated. It makes the question asker frustrated. There's frustration all around and it makes everyone grumpy.
This is why the Amazon Wishlist makes my life so much easier.
I personally believe that everybody needs an Amazon Prime account. Around $80 a year gets you unlimited free 2 day shipping on most of the items for sale on Amazon.com. I use my Amazon account for everything. Cds, Books, Clothes, Gifts, Phone Cases, Water Bottle Filters, Toothpaste...anything. One of the features of your Amazon.com account (Prime or regular) is the Wishlist.
Basically, on every item listed on Amazon.com, there is an "Add to Wishlist" button. If you see an item you want but don't want to spend your own money or that you think you would like as a gift, you just click that button. And if you use Google Chrome, you can download a "Wish List Extension" so that you can add items from other websites onto your wishlist. This makes Christmas (and birthdays and other gift giving occasions) so much easier for me because I add items to my wishlist throughout the year. Then when that ugly little question rears it's ugly little head, I actually have an answer: "I have an Amazon wishlist." All someone has to do is search my e-mail and there it is. No hassle. No fuss. No stress. Just a Merry Christmas.
Another similar feature that Amazon offers is the gift organizer. This makes gift giving much easier for me because it allows me to "save" an item that I think might be a good gift for someone. I adore this because I always come up with the best Christmas gift ideas in July. Or May. Or January. Or September. Or any month that is not December. And as soon as December comes around, I forget all of them. This feature allows me to make a gift list for any person I need to that I can add to throughout the year. I also really love it for budgeting purposes because you can put several things on a list for a person throughout the year and then, when Christmas rolls around, you can use the list to choose the item(s) that best fits your budget at the time.
Of course, I do still do a bit of the walking-around-the-mall-looking-for-the-perfect-gift-for-the-perfect-person thing. But I tend to get distracted by shoes or clothes or a pretzel about 10 minutes in and after about an hour of walking around ignoring the clothes and shoes and pretzels I want, I get kind of grumpy. If I want to be productive and actually have something to wrap and put under the Christmas tree, Amazon.com is the way to go.
Like I said, this post is a bit late for this Christmas season. But hey, there's no time like the present to get started on NEXT Christmas! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment