Holiday Conundrum

It was late November and I was trying to get an early start on Christmas shopping before the retail stores turned into warzones and the online stores all turned into www.out-of-stock.com.

Chris and I have a tradition of buying each other over the top presents at Christmas. Those who love the art of gift-giving would love some of the things we have given each other and *how* we gave them. Others may just think we are ostentatious - but that's another story for another time.

As I started thinking about gifts for my wife, I found myself in a rut. Every idea I came up with was pretty run of the mill and uninspiring. At my lowest point, I was actually looking at the Christmas list she put together for the rest of her family looking for ideas.

I don't know when it hit me (most likely during my 68 mile commute to work) but once I thought about it, I knew what the gift was, but I didn't know if it existed.

There are two things my wife often talks about doing - running a marathon and traveling to Ireland. So I went home took a shot on Google and searched on "Marathon Ireland" and there it was - Dublin Marathon 2008.

I freaked out - this was THE GIFT - all I had to do now is line up the details.