I did most of my Christmas shopping online this year...

In past years, my Christmas shopping has followed a traditional pattern - I go to a bunch of stores looking for stuff, end up not finding most of it, and wind up buying it online. This year, I decided to skip the pretense of buying stuff at a brick and mortar store, and just buy it online.

I only bought 4 things at actual stores - wine, from Naylor in PA, lottery tickets to go with the Lottery Mate scratch off apparatus that I bought BSOM as a gag gift, and two gift cards. The first two items I couldn't legally buy online, and the second two I could, but didn't want to pay $2 shipping for something I could easily buy locally.

I'm still waiting for two gifts to arrive, and I'm not sure they will in time. One is from Amazon, and while it said it would not get here by Christmas, I've had Amazon say that in the past and still gotten stuff in time - I'm hoping this isn't the time they actually meant it.

But for the most part it's gone smoothly - I've been able to buy stuff at home or at work without having to use gas, run around, or take time out of my very busy schedule to go shopping. I've gotten pretty good prices on what I've bought. And I've gotten a bunch of packing material to use for my eBay business.

I'm amazed that so many people even bother going shopping at brick and mortar stores anymore.