DLand - And What Do You Want, Little Girl?

Mary: \"What does Genie want for Christmas?\" Sweetpea: \"Hmm ... sex toys?\"

Mary: \"No, I didn't ask what you wanted for Christmas. I asked what Genie wanted.\"

Sweetpea: \"Oh, well, you'll have to ask her.\"

Christmas shopping this year has been pretty productive so far. There are still some tough folks on the list this year that we haven't found the perfect thing for, but that will all come in due time.

Sweetpea and I filled the trunk on Sunday with toys for everyone. This is the year of toys. No, I can't tell you what they all are, silly, or it might spoil it. Just stop asking.

My aunt Sissy and parents came over for dinner on Sunday. Well, they brought dinner with them. We just had to provide the table and plates and drinks. A pretty good deal all around. We worked on some computer stuff for Daddy again (or rather still) and I showed them the Christmas tape I found. I believe I have the technology to get it on my computer, now just have to find the time.

The topic of holiday traditions came up while we listened. I always thought we had it pretty good at our house, but every family does it differently. My parents would pick out a particular wrapping paper for each child (there are three of us) and would wrap everything for that child in their wrapping paper. When Jeremy joined the family he got his own paper too. Now that we're grownups we can sometimes pick out our own paper (I like to wrap presents so I get the inside scoop). But everything down to the dental floss, chap stick, and post it notes we got was wrapped. It made a very impressive display.

The odd thing is that we never exchanged gifts. We never got my parents gifts and they never got us gifts. It all came from Santy Claus (and no that wasn't a typo). Somehow as a child this all made perfect sense. We would still pick out gifts for our extended family and exchange those, but that somehow was different. I suppose our tradition of not celebrating birthdays carried over. I know that makes my family sound like some looney cult who says Santa hunted, shot and ate the Easter Bunny but I suppose we just celebrated in not so organized ways.

It must have been strange for my brothers too. I am the baby of the family with Perry and Doug being six and a half and 18 years older than I, respectively. So when I was 4 years old getting a Baby Seaweed, Perry at 11 was complaining about me being in his territory while racing his Porche remote controlled car and my Doug at 22 was getting gift certificates from Santa for new glasses (that never phased me as a kid either apparently). They had to keep Santa alive for a really long time. I suppose that's why we still keep Santa around for us. My mother still fills our stockings with chapstick and gum. And we still get our own wrapping paper.

There were other oddities like the evolution of the Christmas Eve hunt for the Christmas tree (they're much cheaper that day too). And occasionally Santa would drop something in the fireplace on his way in (when my parents couldn't get the perfect gift in time). My co-worker's dad said that Santa would bring the Christmas tree when he brought the presents as well at his house. That seemed a little over the top to me, but hey, more power to them. Does your family have any strange or really neat holiday traditions?