Christmas Traditions

Christmas around here is a little unorthodox. We have never, ever, ever waited until Christmas to open our presents. Never even made it to Christmas Eve. Once we made it to the 23rd, but that was because that just happened to be the day we did our shopping for each other. The way it stands presently, we pick a day to go shopping for each other, we set a spending limit ($50), we go, we blow the set spending limit, we come back and secretly wrap our over priced presents in separate rooms, we come out with our gifts in hand, put them under the tree and them immediately open them. The presents are under the tree approximately 15 seconds. We just can't handle the suspense. This is our last year to be able to do that, as next year Sophie will be old enough to understand the concept of presents, and quite possibly Santa. Lots of things change with a kid around the house.

Jacob continually agonizes over Christmas shopping because he is a habitual Bad Gift Buyer. If this seems insensitive, it's really not. He knows he is. We've openly discussed his inability to distinguish if a light up poster of a neon green fire truck is a good present. (Let me just clue you in here, it's not.) Thoughtful, yes, as I was a volunteer fire fighter at the time. Thoughtful, but ugly as sin. The follow up present the next year was the gripping biography of George W. Bush. Again, as a rabid Republican, thoughtful, but incredibly boring. I did try to wade through it, but it was just no good. I never told him outright that the gifts were awful, but I guess I just couldn't hold the fake smile long enough, because he always knew. Finally we just cleared the air and talked about what to do about it. So last year we went out on a limb and tried something new... I told him EXACTLY what I wanted, and he went and got it. I actually cried when I got my brand spanking new GE Mixer last year, because it was a good, practical gift that I loved and would use frequently. And I do. So this year I should be getting new 13*9 pans, 2 8 inch square pans, a set of cooling racks and a few other odds and ends. It's shaping up to be a good Christmas.