Not quite so Merry after all

We get to experience the often preached but rarely practiced art of celebrating the holidays without an excess of materialism. We very luckily procrastinated this year on buying big gifts. We were eying a new Pivot XC race bike for me (the Mach 4) and a flat screen TV for Dave. We did our research Sunday and were all set to buy my bike, when Dave and the rest of the software division, along with half the rest of the company, were laid off Monday. Dave will land a new job soon, we hope, but in the meantime, frugality is called for.