One Shopping Day Left Until Christmas 2012: Last-Minute Gift Ideas in Waukee Area

Yikes! You haven’t shopped for her yet? She’s been doing all this work to get the household ready for Christmas and you’re still still wondering about what to get her?

Husbands and other men – and we say this with absolute love and affection for the male gender – have a reputation, earned or not, for waiting until the last minute. Trust Patch.

This. Will. Get. You. Off. The. Hook.

First off, buy her some flowers. For today, not for Christmas Day. You have serious ground to make up.

A holiday poinsettia — say, from Waukee's Earl May Nursery — is a great choice and you should definitely buy one and present it as a thoughtful gesture, a prelude to the prelude to the prelude to the real gift.

Say something like this, “Gee, honey, with all you’ve been doing decorating, cooking and buying gifts for – what are we up to now, 34 on your side and 78 on mine – this isn’t much, but I thought you could keep it or

The Prelude to the Prelude to the Real Gift

Then bring out the long-stemmed roses. Overkill? Maybe. That’s fair.

But this occasion does call for roses -- there are other flowers that say “I love and appreciate you.” In Waukee, we suggest Classic Floral Design -- but roses are going to make your mea culpa go over better.

(Lest someone suggest, as happened recently with Whole Foods, that Patch is sexist – the heck, you say? – this conversation works just as well if he’s cooking and she’s pathetically uninvolved in the holiday preparations. Just switch out the pronouns.)

The Prelude to the Gift

Don’t forget the chocolate.

Godiva Chocolatier in nearby Jordan Creek Town Center sells chocolate gift baskets, baked goods, specialty ice cream and other desserts. You can’t go wrong at Chocolaterie Stam, either.

The Gift

You need a strong finish. You messed up, but this is working out. You can still come out of this looking like Prince Flipping Charming.

Stop by International Travel Associates, University Travel Services or Travel Flo Group and pick up brochures for romantic getaways to places you’ve always wanted to visit. Let her pick where you go. Don't be cheap.

You’re good to go.