Returns Already?

            Nearly every family has been touched by the Day-After-Christmas gift return; however, do you start returning presents before Christmas.  I have.  In fact I have nearly every year for the past few years.  Why? 

As I check off my shopping gift
list, I number my receipts and match
the receipts to the gifts on my list.
This one is waiting to be numbered.

            Sometimes I get carried away and neglect to total the amounts I am spending per person as I am shopping.  Since I have started using my Christmas Club account, I mistakenly think I will have no problem purchasing the presents.  Then reality reminds me that there limits for each person.

            Sometimes the furry of the Black Friday Sales confuses my thinking, "If I don't get it now, I won't be able to get it at all."  So, it lands in my cart.  Then it goes into my car.  Sometimes the extra item makes it home; other times it's returned to the store after I am done shopping and before I go home.

            Sometimes the item has made it home and may even be wrapped.  Then the person who "had to have it" suddenly wants something else even more for Christmas.  Now, this situation is not a guaranteed return.  Usually the gift receiver has to graciously accept the first item without a complaint since that was what was on the wish list at the time purchases were made.  (I was thinking of my children as I typed that last sentence.)  However, sometimes I am willing to make an exception.  For example, if I have a child that has no definite desires but is pressured to put something on the wish list so I can go shopping and then that same child later knows exactly what she wants, then I would probably return the first purchase if possible and give her what she really wants instead.

            Tonight I did a different type of return and repurchase.  Last month I had earned a gift card at a store and planned to use it to help purchase presents, but I kept forgetting to pull it out until after I had already paid for the items.  It happened again this afternoon.  However, tonight I went back to the store and returned one of the gifts I had purchased only hours earlier.  While standing there, I re-purchased the very same item and used my gift card to pay for it.  Wah-lah!  No more forgetting to use my card!  I may be little over-excited about using my gift card, but you would understand if you knew how frustrated I was about continually forgetting to redeem my card.

            Even though this last instance was not technically a before-Christmas return, I have had my share of them.  How about you?  Has your family already been touched by a before-Christmas return this year?