Do you shop local?

Squeezing holiday shopping in between work, dinner-making, school concerts, school basketball practices and games, I have done my share of online buying, taking advantage of free shipping and scouting online coupon codes that knock off even more from the final tab.(Love finding more than one for one item!) But I never want to get out of the holiday season without buying some presents from local stores.

I remembered why as I ducked into one of my favorite local bookstores, the one with the same group of women who have been working there since my first visit many years ago. The same store where you'll find little yellow slips of paper with mini-handwritten reviews of books peeking out of the pages, all written by those same women. It's the kind of place I knew I could ask for some ideas for books for my reluctant reader, my youngest who has reread all of the "Twilight" books and is sure she will never find another book she likes. Sure enough, before I knew it, I had seven books to consider, pulled down from the shelves and handed to me with pithy story synopses.

I walked out with a bagful of books and more gift-giving anticipation than hitting the "submit order" button will ever engender.

Do you have some favorite local stores you make sure are on your shopping list?