Has anybody else noticed that as we have grown older, our list of Christmas gift recipients has ballooned into unmanageable and unaffordable proportions?  It started out that I would get a little gift for a few of my closest friends.  This was cool and an enjoyable little exchange.  Then people started having kids.  So you'd buy the kid a present.  Which again, was kinda fun when everybody just had one.  Oh, but then they started coming in droves.  And it stopped being fun around this time.  Especially when people started spreading out around the country and you are mailing this stuff all over God's green Earth.  At some point this has got to stop.  I have a feeling that everybody else feels the same way about it but is afraid to say something to end the circle of insanity.  I'll say it.  I love ya, friends, and kids of friends too.  Heck, some of you kids I consider friends in your own right. That being said, this mushroom cloud of generosity must stop lest it end in my family and I walking around in nothing but barrels.  We do that anyway from time to time but we don't want to do it because we have to. Gifts to children of friends?  Finished.  Sorry kiddies.  Mean Auntie Mollie does not actually hate children, she just no longer gives gifts to those she is not related to.  Sorry to change it up on ya, but it was spiraling out of control.  Giving gifts because you "have" to is not a good precedent.  And knowing my friends and their children, I don't think anybody is going to be lacking in the Christmas gift department.  We're giving too many things to people that don't NEED anything.  Bah Humbug.