HO-HO, UH-OH!

It’s that time of the year!  That wonderfully magic day called: Christmas.

Oh, how I hate this time of the year!

As I get older, the joys I used to experience for the season to be jolly have now slipped me by. I have no little children to plan Christmas for, no grandchildren that I know of, so it is just TLW (The Little Woman), and me.

I remember Christmas morning with the kids, presents wrapped and the house decorated like it was vandalized by Santa!

It is also the time that I shop for TLW. I think for putting up with me for the whole year, she should and deserves a present. Maybe present is a little weak for what she deserves, but nonetheless, it is an issue that keeps me awake at nights.

IT IS A NIGHTMARE!

I can’t recall how many years I have had the same bad dream. It is Christmas morning, she gives me a gift that knocks my socks off, and I realize I didn’t get her one! The sense of failure, shame, guilt and remorse, the self-anger is all there, and I was a thoughtless husband, forgetting someone dear.

It is a motivator, big time.

Usually in that dream, the kids are still all living at home, and in my usual fashion, I am teasing them about the gifts they got.

Growing up in Brooklyn, I don’t recall Mom and Dad exchanging gifts for the Holidays. Mom cooked, Dad went out to buy the presents and I guess that was all that was needed. We had a tree, usually purchased on Christmas Eve that needed help, and probably should have been placed in a large bucket so it could catch all the pine needles that were falling off.

Maybe they exchanged gifts quietly, maybe not. I know we were poor so maybe they just had each other. They always made sure we had the same toys as our friends did, so there must have been some kind of checking with other parents as to what to get us so all the kids in the neighborhood had the same.

I know that I have mentioned this before, and I will mention it again… the best gift I got from TLW was our first Christmas. We were struggling to get started in life as a couple, and were married only about 6 months. I had a job and was on my way, but money was tight. My watch had stopped working and I was not using it. As a tradition we have stocking gifts, and in it goes little items, price is not the criterion, just that there be something in it. In my stocking was my watch, which I had forgotten about, repaired! It made me very happy to this day!

Avoid the nightmares-shop for your sweetie – TODAY!

This year I got her her present early! I have to intercept the postman so she doesn't see the bill!