 |
| Ugly Sweater Parties |
 |
| The Spiked Anything |
 |
| The Unusual Gifts |
As I get older, I am realizing the true meaning of Christmas and it's not how many presents you get but rather the quality of those presents. I decided to take this realization seriously and put only two "quality" items on my Christmas list to my dad: a professional camera and a Fossil watch. I emailed the list labeled, "my mature list". The following day I received an email with 'Camera' in the subject line and a link to the camera. I guess when you're older you don't need the surprise part, merely the feeling of giving and receiving. As I read my dad's email, it described the camera's features, the great deal I would be getting and that if I'm currently in the position to purchase it, this would be the camera to go for. Love, Dad. I revised my current list of two items to include slippers, ipod case and three more links to clothes I wanted online then re-sent to my dad.
Honestly though, I'm no longer concerned with the materialistic things....over Christmas. Now that I'm living in California I've learned that being with my family and friends is all I need. That and my three Christmas wishes granted:
Wish #1: To walk into my mother's home to find one Christmas tree standing in the living room.
Two Christmas' ago, my sister tried to help my mom get a "headstart" on getting a Christmas tree for the house. (My mom is always wrapping presents ten minutes before we open them, seems pointless.) My sister, Alicia, even hauled it in to the living room as a surprise. But, according to my mom, Alicia's tree was "a dud" but she didn't want to hurt her feelings by getting rid of it. I told her, Alicia wasn't too sensitive about her tree giving and to just get a new one that wasn't dropping 8,000 needles a day. A few days later, a friend and I walked into the house to find two extremely large Pine trees standing in the living room. I could only hear a small voice coming from over by the fireplace. "Hello!" We made our way through the living room forest to find my mom sitting in her normal spot on the fireplace drinkin' a beer, watching Wheel of Fortune with her two Christmas trees. Her words, "I'll figure it out".
 |
| My mom in front of one of many XMAS trees in her life. |
Alicia and I should've had some clue this particular Christmas wouldn't be the smoothest of Christmas' when we found ourselves climbing through 5 ft. snow drifts to get to the front door of my dad's house. After being snowed-in with my family for two full days, we realized we could easily ration the food we had, we could improvise with wearing clean clothes, but running out of alcohol was unacceptable. We asked the next door neighbor to bring out his JOHN DEER tractor (full size) and shovel/plow our driveway. Mr. John Deer, himself, got stuck. Next step was to pull out the tire chains, which apparently we had.
Wish #3: Find only bows attached to the tops of my presents.
Last Christmas my mother taped a small knife to the top of my present. She thought it would be "handy". What do you say to this? Thank you...?
Happy Holidays!
