Suburban Goddess

The in-laws swooped in last night in a flurry of Christmas bows and gift bags. As I watched package after package being placed under the tree, then around the tree, then three feet away from the tree, I started to fret that perhaps my daughter might be a little overwhelmed. My mother-in-law made the comment, “Well, I didn’t have any IDEAS for Alex, so I had to go out on my own.”

All right, let’s look at the evidence in question.

1.) You must call at a decent hour (follow my double-digit rule) for me to answer the phone.

2.) Repeatedly calling the number over & over & over & over again until I pick up does not count as an acceptable attempt either. I pay a lot of money for people to ignore my voicemail.

3.) If you are attempting to find out what my my daughter wants and only try to call me ONE TIME at 10:30pm with the over & over method, then don’t get mad at me for not volunteering any information.

4.) I never ASSUME that anyone will buy me or my offspring presents. Especially if I feel like it was just a huge hassle for you to do so, and you go out of your way to make sure I KNOW I am a pain-in-the-ass to shop for.

Here’s an easy holiday formula for anyone who wants to know what I want for Christmas.

Me + My Family & Friends + Time = All I Need For A Merry Christmas.

I truly don’t care about STUFF, and I don’t want my daughter turning into a materialistic-gimme-more-spoiled-brat type. I want my daughter to appreciate Christmas for the spirit of love, happiness, giving, & appreciation. I’m not saying I’m depriving my child of presents on Christmas; NO, I’m not THAT Mom. I love to watch her little face light up as she unwraps each gift to find some magical, wonderful toy (which she will break in fifteen minutes.) Stuff is easy. We can get stuff.

But I also love the look on her face as my father tickles her, and she runs to hug my mother, and she giggles uncontrollably as she chases her brother around the living room. I love to watch my sister-in-law drag Alex around the tile floors on the “Blankie-Train.” I love to hear her tinkly laughter when her grandpa says “I see your toes!” And to have all those people in the same room, together, sharing that moment; THAT is what Christmas is about to me. And you can’t wrap that up & put it under the tree.

This entry was posted on December 21, 2006 at 7:29 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.