Around mid-December we leave for a two-week trip to El Salvador, the country of my birth. I have not been there for two years, so naturally I am excited about seeing my family. We will be celebrating my aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary... a milestone nowadays and definitely one in our family where people either die or get divorced before reaching their 50th. Whenever we visit, DH and I are given the VIP treatment... everyone is kind and thoughtful and we always have a great time.

We will be there for Christmas, so I wanted to bring gifts, even if it is something small. My aunt, age 80, is my mother's younger sister and she has five children, and they are all married and have children of their own... so we are talking about a lot of relatives. Some I do not know well, others I am close to. Altogether, I needed to buy gifts for 26 people including a baby due in May. Packing all of this will be interesting to say the least.

I called this my "shopping challenge" because in keeping with import regulations, I had a $500 limit. Moreover, I rarely see some of these relatives so I don't know sizes, likes and so on. My challenge was completed well before Black Friday. A definite benefit of being retired is that I can go shopping in the middle of the day and not fight the crowds. And did I ever score some great bargains! So far, I've spent $319.94 for items that retail for $712.48. This takes care of 21 of the 26 relatives.

The only item I paid full price for was a beautiful, 8.4-inch digital frame that will be a gift for my aunt and uncle ($99 @ Costco.com). We will take photos of the family and the celebration and get everything set up for them while we are there. Everything else was bought on sale or with a discount of some kind. For the baby-to-be (gender unknown): Carter's blankets/bibs and a 7-inch Kodak digital frame for the parents (@ 50% discount). We spent more on them because they are generously housing us during our stay. For my aunt's five children, I bought five beautiful photo frames (5 X 7) and inserted recent photos of their children. This and some type of candy will be a "couple's gift."

Knowing these are favorites, I bought Sees chocolates, Jelly Bellys, and salt-water taffy. One cousin is getting a bottle of organic Napa Valley virgin olive oil to compare to that of his homeland (Milan, Italy). Three female cousins from a different branch of the family are getting a blouse, top, or Liz Claiborne PJs (I knew their size), and an XO wallet and handbag for a teenage cousin. Oh, and the ladies from the "Italian branch" of the family will also get some imported Italian soaps.

I gave up on the five teenage boys who will end up getting money (a new $20 bill). I just don't know sizes or what teenage boys like for that matter, so I saved myself a lot of stress and decided to just go with $$. The American dollar is the official currency of El Salvador, so this will have to do... money in a card. We'll also give some $$ to my aunt and uncle, hoping they'll use it toward a trip to the USA in 2009... or something special like that. And I know it will be OK because the invitation specifies "regalo de sobre" which is like the "money tree" people sometimes have at celebrations here in the US.

My favorite stores for bargains: Ross and TJ Maxx, hands down. You can't beat their deep discounts on name-brand items, but you do have to look around as sometimes these stores can get picked over. But this doesn't stop me... I am a patient shopper. Costco and Best Buy had good deals on high-quality digital frames. All in all, I am pleased that my "shopping challenge" was a success and that I stayed under budget. Now, I better go see about that packing...