Christmas Shopping

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It's been quite a few years now since I've worried much about the gifts that we hand out around here.

A friend of mine with a young son posted a photo of what his boy wanted for Christmas:

Transformers and Power Rangers.

Those were the days when I was fully engaged.

I'd help Kathy search out the toys that the kids wanted because I was deathly afraid of what might happen if they didn't get them.

I hated the tantrums.

I remember the year when it was all about Godzilla and the new Godzilla movie that was coming out. The Cartoon Network was promoting that thing heavily, and you can look up this information, but do you know when they finally released it?

December 26.

Yeah, I had to have a long, drawn-out debate about why it wasn't under the tree when it was supposed to be.

I blamed it on Santa, that fat, lazy bastard.

Yet it all feels weird to me now.

Kathy does all the shopping - most of it in an epic two or three day event right after Thanksgiving.

God Bless her.

Nothing I hate more than meeting total strangers in a commerce situation.

I never know what I'm getting.

I know less about what she's getting.

And the kids?

There's no more mystery there either.

What they want is pretty much laid out for everyone to see.

Is there something lost there?

I suppose.

Yet it seems to take away a lot of the general angst about the gift-giving process. We sort of know the score and with a lot of the chasing-crap-around gone early...we just sort of sit back and get ready for the days.

And we enjoy it more.

Now there may certainly be surprises.

Little tokens that are meant to get a reaction. I'm sure that I'll look around a bit and see if I can find something special, but I'm certainly not going to be running into any malls or standing in any lines.

And if I don't come up with anything it really won't matter because we have a handle on the important parts of the season...

...and besides I can always blame Santa.

...that fat, lazy bastard.

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