Getting near the holidays again

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is in just a few weeks. This year I am going out of the country for an exciting Thanksgiving with my girlfriend. It has been 3 years since I have spent Thanksgiving with my family. My mother died when I was a teenager and my father is currently married to someone MUCH younger than he is. As much as I love my dad…it is tough to spend time with him. He lives about 400 miles away. I will make a trip to see him near Christmas but I have not decided on the details yet. I may try to save money and drive but with $3 gas I don’t know how much money I would end up saving. Getting my father a gift has always been a challenge. He is most happy with a Best Buy gift card so he can shop for himself. One year I donated money to Toys for Tots in their names and he actually got mad at me about it. I could not believe it. After all he grew up in a working class family during the depression and joined the military at 17 to have a chance to make it in the world. He did not even graduate from high school but then again many people joined the military before high school graduation during WW II. So anyway you would think he would want to donate to kids who don’t have much. Out of spite I may do another donation in their names.