Rotary Ann Lifestyle:
The Christmas List
by:Tessa Prieto Valdes

    Oh! 'Tis the season to go shopping!!! The scents of pine and chestnuts are in the air and so is the smell of bazaar stalls. The weekends are just full of opportunities to go bargain hunting. Obviously, these places are filled mostly with women armed with cash and a good pair of walking shoes. All carrying some sort of list to give to those who were nice. But, which part of the Christmas List is the husband in charge of?

    Every Christmas, DOV is solely in charge of just one thing - making me my updated version of last year's Christmas List. This is a highly-organized listing of family and friends categorized by affiliation. It normally increases in number every year, but we scrap out some names, which either we can't stand anymore or they didn't give us a gift (just kidding!).

    The categories on the List are: DOV family, MTV family, family friends, foreign friends, Rotary, golf, scuba diving and generic friends. Since all you guys fall under the Rotary friends group, let me explain the last group - generic others. These are those that either:

1. Give us generic gifts every year, such as corporate giveaways
2. Give us the classic recycled fruit cake wrapped in green or red cellophane
3. Give us envelopes with "Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year from your ... mailman, newsboy, Meralco meter reader, Wilkins delivery boy, garbage collector, security guard, etc."
4. Give us Christmas cards with a note of thanks and saying how wonderfully kind we have been to them, that without us, they will surely go hungry, and that the Lord will bless us a hundredfold! Boy, we gotta get these guys a great gift!
5. And this year only, all the workers and contractors that are working on our home so they'll be ganado to do a better job.

When this List is given to me, I in turn choose whether they get a gift or just a Christmas card with our Holiday photo by Lita Puyat and our annual family letter c/o DOV. The latter will be a little late this year because Tyrone is arriving on the 18th of December yet. I think we will just use the computer to superimpose Ty's face somehow. He can just be covered with snow, while the rest are sunburned thanks to our Boracay trip this Saturday.

    I have mastered the art of matching the person to the gift. I have a unique way of shopping which DOV hates coz I end up spending so much. My Christmas shopping is really the whole year round. I buy things in bulk thinking I can haggle a better price and justify the quantity by giving them away for Christmas. In the meantime, the stuff gathers dust in a corner of the house. Sometimes these items never reach Christmas time because I end up giving them away or give them as prizes during a party I'm hosting. Other times, I've completely forgotten about them only to find them after Christmas has passed by.

    My policy is even if it's tempting, I never recycle because it takes the fun out of shopping and if I didn't like the gift, I'm sure my friends won't either. Now if they're DOV's friends, I wouldn't think twice and switch the tags!

    My gifts have some sort of theme each year. This helps me finish my list so I don't have to think so hard. For example, two years ago, everyone got Christmas décor which I personally made. The size varied depending on how close the person was to me. Last year was Crabtree & Evelyn, because a diving friend was in corporate sales. I got so carried away, we had their bath products until mid-June. I haven't thought of a theme for this year yet, but wanted to tie-in the millennium feel. So something metal perhaps. (Possible scrap building materials from our house.)

    To aid DOV on his gift to me, I give him a short, expensive list of the things I'm longing to have. This year it's an electronic list to put into our future house. It starts with a Philips flat TV, the Bose Lifestyle System or another DVD for our new playroom. Hopefully, DOV can afford to get me all of them.

    So to the husbands whose wives have answered my questionnaire, here's a hint of what they want. Each wrote this to dear Santa too.

* Linda R - Happiness, happiness and continued happiness and success with business and family.
* Leni G - Vacation with Eugene and the kids in Amanpulo with Al and Becky again. So this time, they can take care of our kids.
* Marides P - To go somewhere with a group of friends and their kids too.
* Becky C - What else! A healthy baby boy ... and I won't mind a string of South Sea pearls ... hmmm! Then a diamond necklace for next year. I hope Santa gets to read this.
* Grace C - A REAL vacation.
* Kathleen S - a baby.
* Chatty R - a baby. (I think she can already ask for something else if she answered this way back.)
* Sandy A. S. - a charge account at Nordstrom.
* Marisun U. - a two-week, stress-free, fun-filled vacation with family and friends.
* Gina L - a peaceful, wholesome family affair.
* Carla C - an Ethan Allan four poster bed.
* Melissa R - a diamond cross pendant.
* Nelleke O - a white Christmas with our family nearby.
* Ailene L - a Reverso Pueto watch.

So boys, you either have to whip out your cash or whip out something else to keep your wives happy this Christmas.