Ask anyone who knows me well, what is this ole' girl's favorite holiday? Easy: Christmas! For a lot of people the answer would be the same; the smells of winter, a fresh cut Christmas tree, the colors, the joy in the air, the warmth of giving and being surrounded by loved ones. Maybe it's because I'm a December baby. I fear it's a little more deep rooted than that.
For as far back into my childhood as I can reach, I can remember being super excited about Christmas. My mother will confirm that I was notorious for scouting out the presents. In the several child hood homes that I can remember, I can still picture rooms and closets where presents were hid. Not to be outsmarted, those presents were carefully unwrapped just enough to see what's inside, and re-wrapped as if this slickster was never there. Like any good crime-committing child, my skills developed over time. There is something about patience and waiting that alluded me...still does today, I'm afraid.
Many a Christmas later, I'm better. I don't scout out the presents for a little game of peeking. I've evolved. Although, confession: it took many adult years to get here. Don't you worry, it's not just the getting that I got hung up on. Wouldn't want you to perceive me as shallow; it's absolutely the giving. Something about wrapping presents, one by one brings the same joy as grocery shopping and doing laundry. Yes, these are real sources of contentment. Strange, I already know. Christmas is my true favorite holiday because I love, love shopping for people, wrapping the gifts and watching the satisfaction of hitting the nail on the head with a well-planned gift. The look of pure glee when I come in with bags, haul out the wrapping paper, tape and scissors and go to work! The Hub finds it amusing. The kids think I'm strange. I can barely tell because my vision is blurred from my cheeks rising so high on my glee-filled face.
Recently, The Hub reminded me that he got a gift at a work party last year, opened it ahead of Christmas (the horror!) and it landed somewhere in the heavily decorated living room. Not a few days later, I scooped that bad boy up and re-wrapped it; put the precious cargo under the tree and called it a day. On Christmas morning, when The Hub got to this gift with his name on it he happily unwrapped it. I thought the man would die laughing as he found his recently received present re-wrapped for him to open and receive again. Hey, who doesn't like to open gifts...twice? I figured it will be one more thing the very-hard-to-shop-for-man would have on Christmas morning. Don't be alarmed. Also, you've been warned. Don't leave your gifts lying around me before Christmas comes. They will disappear and reappear.
All of my over-the-top Christmas behaviors just remind me that I am still very much in love with this holiday. Other childhood favorites like Valentine's Day and Halloween have left my life, practically never to be seen again, I mean, c'mon. Valentine's Day is all pink, and hearts and chocolate that I sure don't need, and a one-gift slam-bam-thank-you-ma'am. And don't get me and my thighs even started on discussing Halloween. But, ah Christmas. Christmas has remained etched into the silly grin plastered on my face almost constantly through this month. I'm leaving my kids quite the legacy to live up to. You know how excited kids get for Christmas. They are energeized children and yet I believe that I have them beat.
I'm working on being more mature about this. The tree & home decorating experience has become more of a group project than it was in our early years of marriage. We maintain a great tradition of going to pick out a tree together as a family. But, clearly, the decorating has to be done under my watchful eye. The lights are mine to wrap around our newly welcomed pine-friend. I concede just a little by letting them hang the ornaments. I have reluctantly given up the job of being the present distributor Christmas morning. This was a hard one for me, but after years of begging I gave in and passed the torch on this one. "Fine, children, take my job, why don'tcha?" I told them, with all the love in my voice I could muster up. I won't be able to tell you that it's easy for me to sit idly by and watch them do it all wrong. But the mature adult in me has learned to manage the inner turmoil I feel over watching more than one present handed out at a time, paper ripped haphazardly and an unorganized, unstructured view of who got what. Oh, good grief. One can't even tell who the gift was from. Just wrong, I tell ya. Just writing about it is causing my heart rate trouble.
Lest you think I'm a neurotic fool, let me assure you this is the only area of my life where the got-to-have-control button is broken and can't be turned off. Right, mom? Don't answer that... Hey, some lifelong habits need to be resolved. Some are detrimental to one's well-being. Some are just odd that earn a person strange looks and unflattering name tags. In my defense, I don't believe that is applicable to me at this time, in reference to this situation. This is just good-natured and full of pure joy. You can either join with me in the spirit of things and try to understand where I am coming from, or join my family who each have decided that mom is strange, and this is one more example of it. Each of us should have at least one thing in our lives that is unreasonably youthful and fun. Merry your Christmas, friends!
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