On the fourth day of Christmas…

Gift and shopping guides: the previous two years I ran a Holiday Shopping Guide and Holiday Gift Guide and surprisingly, they’re still mostly relevant. And since there’s now only one shopping week before Christmas left, it’s a good time to revisit them.

Also, for anyone looking for locally-authored and topical books, Costco has the run of the "Thunder Over the Ochoco" series authored by the late Gale Ontko. These are reprints for $12.49 apiece; the first editions (which appeared about a decade ago) are almost impossible to find at a reasonable price, so this is a really good deal. Five volumes in all.

(Remember, even though the "Nth day" is going up, this is really a countdown until Christmas Day.)