Despite my frantic pleading with my calendar to tell me something else, Thanksgiving is only a week away... and after that, it's the breakneck-pace Holiday Season until we hit 2010. It's the most wonderful frantic time of the year, and often one that ends up being expensive, too.

Thanksgiving will be here before we know it, and dare I say that only in America could a day meant to celebrate bounty and thankfulness much more commonly devolve into stress and overspending. True, it may be the norm, but it doesn't have to be -- why not try a few simple modifications this year to stay on budget? You'll be glad you did, and chances are you'll enjoy the holiday a lot more, too.

'Tis the season for those of us whose children tromp off to school two or three or five times a week to start thinking about the dreaded holiday teacher gifts. Why dreaded? Do we not appreciate our teachers? I know I can't speak for every parent, but I feel pretty confident speaking for most of us when I say it's really, really difficult to come up just the right teacher gift.

It used to be that parental praise was doled out sparingly, if at all. Our parents and grandparents didn't expect their folks to constantly tell them what a good job they were doing or how great they were; that's simply not what was done. And then pop psychology came along and told us that out kids need to develop good self-esteem, and that happens with our praise, and then somehow an entire generation of "Good job!"ers took over the world.

My daughter started middle school this year. I'm only exaggerating a little when I tell you that I spent the first two weeks in a permanent clench, memories of my own awkward middle school years washing over me in an unexpected wave of PTSD. But the good news is that she absolutely loves it; she's adjusted well, both academically and socially, and most of my fears, it turns out, were for naught. The only thing she doesn't like about middle school is just about the only area where I never had any sort of problem, back in my day. The issue: Backpacks and lockers.