It’s almost Christmas…I can tell because the stores that we visit have Christmas stuff out…for well over a month already. Ugh.
Diane and I asked the girls for their Christmas lists…as we do each year. And this year like every other, we are amazed at the quantity and quality of the items that we receive on the list. It just doesn’t seem as simple as it was when we were kids.
I can remember when I was younger, one of my favorite things was to get out the big Sears and JC Penney catalogs, and pour through the toy section in back. This would be the backbone of my wish list. Then I might add a few things that I saw on tv commercials…usually things that were shown during Saturday morning cartoons. And to top it off, I would probably add a few things that I saw that my friends already had.
Fast forward to adulthood…and I really do not make lists anymore for gifts.
And that is the problem. My wife never knows what to get me.
Every year, we have the same little dance that we do over Christmas gifts. She always asks what I want, and I never have a good answer. Its not that I don’t want anything…its usually that what I want is expensive and unrealistic. Or expensive enough that I don’t feel right about asking for it at Christmas time, and taking away from the gifts that her and children might receive. And so I am always surprised by the gifts I receive.
You should not take that last line as a bad thing. In fact…its wonderful. I really love the gifts that I have received…even if my wife doesn’t believe so! One year, I received a gift-certificate for a massage. It was wonderful. The months around Christmas were very stressful for me that year (things at work…), and the massage certificate was the perfect gift. Of course, I put it away in place where I would not lose it…saving it for when I felt like I really NEEDED it…and of course I lost it. (But sweetheart….I would love another one!)
Another year, I received a really good book on Genealogy. It is a terrific book…and at the time, I was really into it. And then after receiving it, it went on the book shelf, with grand plans to dig through it during my spare time. Then things got busy in life, work got busier, family things took precedent, and I kind of lost the genealogy bug. But I’m hanging onto it because I know that someday the bug will bite again.
The gifts that have worked the best have been gift certificates and gift cards to places that I can go to pick out gifts for myself…or my hobby. Those I haven’t misplaced or lost. They were used to purchase items that I still use and love.
But the gifts that I love the most…are the handmade gifts from the girls. It really doesn’t matter what it is…if they put the effort into it…its wonderful. Of course now that they are pret-teens and teenagers, I don’t know how many more of those type of gifts I can expect. Its a shame really.
Thanksgiving has come and gone…Black Friday is past…and the dance with my wife has started anew. She has again asked what I would like for Christmas…and again I don’t have a good answer.
I would like to think I have have come a long way from those days of looking for toys in the Sears and Penney’s catalogs….
But then again…I did get a B&H Photo catalog the other day…
The toys are just more expensive. 
