I've put off doing anything even remotely Christmasy until today. After lunch with the kiddo and dil, we went to Build A Bear and built a dog for the grandbaby. He's the cutest little fuzzy brown and white puppy, and when you squeeze his left hand, you get a recording of our son telling the baby Merry Christmas.

I'm allergic to malls and crowds (seriously, they make me itch), but I had fun with Ralph. He's wearing desert camies and desert boots, and has a cute little black beret. (The kiddo says he's gonna find him a maroon one, since that's what Airborne wears.) DIL named him after the piano-playing dog on the Muppets.

We also picked up an addition to the baby's train set.We bought his first engine for his birthday, and he's getting an Army engine for Christmas. Both his dad and his favorite grandma (don't tell the other grandmother!) love train sets and building towns and making trees, so by the time he's old enough to get his hands in some plaster of Paris, he'll have a complete train that's liable to cost as much as my first car. I've already told his parents that they have to consider the train when they buy a house, since a good set-up requires a whole room of its own.

And that's it for my Christmas shopping. Sister J bought the group gift for Mom, so all I have to do is write a check to her, then it's money for everyone else.

My kind of gift-giving.