Fast Forward Time
It’s that time of the year again. The leaves are changing colors, pumpkins adorn the porches and the smell of cider and donuts fill the air. You know what that means? In what will feel like two weeks it will be Christmas.
Every year it seems as if the moment pumpkins hit the porch the race is on to begin the holiday shopping and planning. Forget all those poor Pilgrims and Indians, Thanksgiving is just a day to pig out and go over all the Black Friday ads and make a plan. For the record, I will not be one of those people sleeping on the ground outside Wal-Mart waiting for the store to open unless I am in complete renal failure and they are giving away kidneys in Aisle 5.
To avoid this urban camping experience you must figure out what the hot toy or electronic device is going to be and rush out and buy it. Find the most expensive and easily breakable item in your kids age bracket and that will be it. If you don’t shop early you will end up like my friend Cindy. She sat up all night in a hard chair at Meijers to save her spot in line. All that pain just to get her hands on a Wii game station. Late shopping is not for the faint of heart.
Michael my youngest makes shopping very easy. He usually makes a list in JULY of everything he wants. complete with the website and item number. To make it really efficient he will email it to you and you can just click on the link. Nothing says Christmas like a online shopping basket filled to the brim. He’s not big on surprises. He makes the list , you purchase the items and all is merry and bright..
Ashley is much more difficult. She never wants anything specific but she wants Christmas to be magical. There needs to be a super surprise that will be a memory maker. She has her mother’s affliction called “Anticipating the Norman Rockwell Christmas”. There is not cure for this and she will still have the same expectations in her head when she starts making the magic for her own family.
Don’t get me wrong I love Christmas. I just worry that one day we are going to end up with a Christmas tree decorated with pumpkins and gourds. It will all just become a big blur with our kids dressed in their Halloween costumes, munching on a turkey drumsticks singing Silent Night.
