Christmas list considerations.

With our upcoming move, when we look at buying something we have to consider if we need it while we are here for 5 months or would we want to pack it and take it with us to Italy. This was also true when we were trying to make a Christmas list. Family members always ask what we want for Christmas so we try to have some ideas ready. In making the list this year we were looking at a few items we would need to take with us to Italy.

I can't remember the last time I did not get some kind of power or hand tool for Christmas, if nothing else I was always a good candidate for a Home Depot gift card. Not this year, no room to pack those power tools in our luggage. Okay so I did ask for a multi-bit screwdriver, but that fits easily into the luggage.

Another consideration for electronics is Europe has a different power grid so the electric razor you plug in here in the US will overheat when you plug it in when in Italy. Same issues with DVD's, Europe has a different code so if you play a European DVD in your player after a few times it "locks" into the European code, thus you can no longer watch any DVD's you brought with you from the US. Our laptop has a DVD player so we have put some of our favorite movies, classics of course, on the list.

Books are a must. Our Italian will take a while to get to the level for easy casual reading and we both love to read (Valerie more than I at about a book a week). English language books can be hard to find outside of major cities, and expensive. Of course there are books about Italy we could use.

Then there are items we want as mementos of New Mexico. It is surprising that for how long we have lived here with how little we have from New Mexico (not including boxes of photos). New Mexico is rich in art and unique items (indian jewelry, pottery, etc). It seems we give more of these items as gifts to others than we obtain for ourselves.

Since our family knows of our upcoming move hopefully there won't be any items too big under the tree this year. However, Valerie tells me a chunk of coal really isn't that big.