I just heard about one of the best web sites in all America. Yakaboutit.com. That’s “Yak about it” . com. This bright young entrepreneur has a virtual catalog and ALL of his products solve a problem. And all of his innovators/inventors own small up and coming companies. That  means none of these products have been hocked on TV late at night. Which means…that you will be sending a fantastic purposeful gift this season that likely NO ONE ELSE will find for that hard to buy someone.

Whether it’s Aunt Gladdy Gotsalots, Nephew Neville the Nascar Nut or Weird Willy the Wino who lives in a tent somewhere in Beverly Hills Yakaboutit.com has a gadget or gizmo right for the job. Face it, everybody has challenges with space, laundry, animals, etc. and the last thing you want to do is give your relatives, boss, neighbor the same gift they got last year or received 10 of this year. And nobody you love should have to return things…REALLY! Returning gifts is worse than buying gifts.

And at Yakaboutit.com you can select the item you want, charge it and have it sent directly to the person on your list in minutes anytime night or day. That’s right… a few minutes, a credit card and viola your shopping is O-V-E-R.

Please tell me you are shopping online this year. All the boomers have had about 10 years to get used to this idea. If you are still freaked out about credit card fraud, get a card just for this season, use it over 3 days and cancel it. There are so many wonderful sites that will make your life easier. Just google what you want and pick a site that has it.

The reason I love shopping online is that it lets me get back to my life and out of long lines. I am ’so over’ the attitude of shopgirls who roll their eyes because I asked if an item came in human sizes (not 0-2), a color that matched more than a black light poster or if it could be shipped (”Yeah, we could ship it…but it’s like a real hassle to fill out the forms and I am really busy here, so you’ll have to come back tomorrow around 1 p.m. when it’s not so busy.”) Okay, does anyone explain to clerks in their 15 minutes of training that if you tick off a customer they actually won’t come back when it is convenient for them? Ergo, no sale, no income, no salary for them.

The reason this of course comes up is that the Friday after Thanksgiving is the busiest annual shopping day of the year. It is enough to make you lose your entire Thanksgiving dinner. And if I read the papers correctly it is the only day of the year that inventory can be guaranteed, and that before 10am on that one day. Some places have their Christmas Specials early. That is if you are ’specia’l enough to get up at 4am…not a typo, 4 A M! as in ‘before roosters get up’.

I for one did most of my shopping in August and what is left will all be done online. I really want Christmas to be a day of peace and joy and it would be nice if all of December had a tone of relaxation to it.

So plan ahead for the Holidays and make them relaxing. Oh and HOT TIP: if you have teenagers on your list it’s easy, send them money. Seriously, you don’t want to listen to the CDs they want and you won’t approve of their hooker/gangsta apparel. For everyone else, let your mouse do the walking.

If you do that you will have a great deal to be thankful for this season.

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