Christmas Lists

When I was a kid it was so easy to write a letter to "Santa" telling him what I wanted for Christmas. Every Sunday morning close to Christmas time, I'd wake up, go to the kitchen, sit at the island and look through all the Sunday ads trying to figure out what I wanted "Santa" to bring me. Every once and a while my dad would take the ads away from me because I hadn't eaten yet and me looking at the ads could take hours. I'd go through each one 5 times to make sure I didn't miss anything super cool and if something was sold at different stores I'd make sure to pick the one with the best price. So he made it a rule that I ate first other wise I might forget to eat all together. And back then I'd get real dizzy and light headed if I didn't eat breakfast.

So anyways, whenever I found something I liked I'd circle it in the ad first, then keep moving through the pile. Once I had sufficiently gone through all the ads 5 times I'd go through them one more time cutting out all the things I circled and setting them aside. After that task was done I'd get up get my partially made list out of my bedroom and grab a roll of scotch tape and start taping the cut outs to my construction paper list. Making sure that each thing had it's name, where to buy it and the price written neatly next to it. So "Santa" could know where to get the best deal.

Now, as a kid my Christmas list could be 10 pages long and of course I'd only get a select amount of things on that novel of a list. And of course Christmas eve (we open our presents on the eve, its tradition) would be more exciting because I never knew what I was getting off the list. And sometimes I'd forget I picked something out so that was even more fun.

But now as an adult it isn't like that. Every year around this time I get the dreaded question, yes I dread it now, "What do you want for Christmas?". So for weeks I rack my brain trying to figure out a small list of things that I need for the house, or just random wants that I've seen through out the year. But it's so difficult because if I see something I want, I have a job, I make money, I can buy it myself now instead of having to write it down and wait til Christmas time to get it.

These days I pick out things that I need to try on or pick out a specific style myself. So I go shopping with my mom for my own Christmas presents. Granted she doesn't buy them all when I'm with her. But it takes the fun out of it. I get all excited about this new coat I've picked out and I don't get to wear it until after Christmas, even tho while trying it on I envisioned myself wearing it for different occasions before Christmas. This also takes the fun out of the "guessing game" while opening presents. I know that rectangular flatish box sitting all the way in the corner of the pile contains the coat I chose for myself.

Luckily my dad will throw in a few surprises that I'm not expecting, usually wrapped in some obscure box that is usually way to big for the item inside. So he likes to spice things up. But the excitement isn't as great as it used to be. I just can't wait til I have kids of my own so it can be exciting to see the looks on their faces when they open there Christmas presents, until then I just have my dads small surprises like a bulk box of scotch tape to look forward to.

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, it's just not the same as an adult until you have kids of your own to surprise.