Christmas Memories

Only one week remains until Christmas. 

All my gifts are bought and wrapped, so there's nothing left to do but enjoy the countdown...and, while I'm counting down, reminisce about Christmases of yore.

It's funny how I used to hate the anticipation of Christmas in the preceding weeks and days of waiting to open my gifts when I was a wee lass. It was torturous! The wait was so painful, especially after the start of Christmas break, that my brother and sister and I usually couldn't hold out until the big day, instead unashamedly begging for an early gift...or two. (My mom, to her credit, usually relented. I'm pretty sure she enjoyed our excitement as much as we did.) And let's not forget the snooping for hidden treasures in closets and untold shameless attempts to sneak a peek at my mom's master list of bought and wrapped Christmas presents. ("She's making a list and checking it twice!") 

I was such a materialistic scoundrel (even more so than I am now), though I suppose nearly all children are. That coveted Sears Wish Book catalog was nearly in tatters by the time Christmas rolled around, as the three of us shared it, fought over it, dogeared its pages, and highlighted and circled the toys of our dreams. The best part was we almost always received exactly what we wanted every year without fail, including some of my all-time favorite gifts: the "Beverly Hills, 90210" Brenda doll (my sister got Dylan, of course), countless Barbie dolls, outfits, houses, and cars, the iconic Mall Madness game (I wouldn't mind playing this again if it's still buried somewhere in my mom's house), rollerblades, Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High books, a toy keyboard, and an acoustic guitar (in my teens). I never had a bad Christmas, giftwise. Those were the days!

No Christmas season was ever complete without this bad boy.

Today it's different. For me, now, the anticipation of Christmas is the best part. At the top of my wishlist every year is that my family will be together, healthily, happily, and harmoniously. The Sears Wish Book is a thing of the past (though paging through one today would undoubtedly put me in touch with my inner child). What I ask for now, and am happiest to receive, are practical things that I need. This year: cookware and bakeware (not to mention a heatwave and NO snow...), and I won't be at all disappointed if I get socks. I enjoy giving to others more than I enjoy receiving gifts. I'm mindful of what's important in life, the real reason for celebrating Christmas, in a way that I never was as a child.

(I can't deny, though, that my inner child is still alive and well. And it wouldn't mind receiving an electric Razor scooter...though I'd probably break my tailbone.)