Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of IHeart Radio.

Good morning.

This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is to keep track of the gifts you give each year.

Not only will this help you avoid unintentional

duplicates, your records will help you make better and faster decisions about what to get for all of your

family and friends. I have a lot of kids, so Christmas inevitably involves a lot of gift buying.

Each year, I keep track in a little notebook of what I plan to get and what I have bought for each of the kids.

I will admit that a big reason I started doing this was to make sure it was all about equal.

When you have five kids, this is a major consideration. But since I am already tracking for my kids, I also keep a list for my husband and

other family members, friends, and employees. I have been doing this for a few years now.

And at some point, in last year's shopping,

I had the happy realization that these records meant I could look back on past years

and see the gifts of Christmas past.

I could compare my ideas for this year to what I had given in the past,

and remember things that had worked particularly well. It strikes me that perhaps not everyone does this. And if you don't,

let me suggest that this is the year you start keeping track of gifts. That way, future you will have a list of your own gifts of Christmas past.

This list does several good things.

First, reviewing it means you won't inadvertently give a person the same gift two years in a row.

Some gifts are totally fine to re-give.

Go ahead and give your aunt that cheese sampler she loves for a decade, if you'd like.

...