Gearing up for the holidays

I need to start thinking about Christmas shopping.   I stumbled across this when I should have been working.

Faced with facts like this, one cannot help but recall the economic discipline's most famous "Bah, humbug!" result: Joel Waldfogel's discovery, in 1993, that the typical $50 Christmas gift is valued by the recipient at between $35 and $43. It is this sort of finding, presumably, that accounts for the popularity of gift cards, which, according to Offenberg, are now the most popular gift in America.

Personally, I like photographs of my kids and grandkids.  They are priceless.

No One is What They Look Like

The other day I posted a picture on Facebook that showed me when I was 19 years old, probably December 1970.  I was a new missionary in Japan at the time, and still had most of my hair.  One of my friends seemed totally astounded that was really me.  At age 58, I look a lot different than I was 39 years ago.

Which got me thinking of a Barry Manilow song from his album Here At the Mayflower called Not What You See.  (You can here a part of the song by clicking on the link above.)  I wonder who the person in the mirror is somedays.....

Here is a link to the lyrics http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/barry_manilow/not_what_you_see-lyrics-42314.html

Sonny, no one is what
they look like
everyone's so much more
Sonny, no one is what
they look like
and we're not what you see
that's for sure