16 December 2019

[Bess Tuggle] - Merry Christmas Shopping (and Happy Sparkles, Y'all!)

Oh, Boy.  Here we go.  The FINAL COUNTDOWN to Christmas has arrived.

When my boys were little, Christmas shopping was actually kind of fun.  The first Thing (kid) got everything I loved as a child.  The second got all the things I wanted as a child.  The third got all those things they didn’t have when I was a child.  Thing 4 was just gravy.  

Now, just to be straight with you, I dislike shopping with a passion.  I really, really REALLY hate to shop, and Cyber Monday was somewhat of a disappointment this year.  But – I’m almost there!  One child (and family) and one grandchild left to go and I’m -done-.

The older the kids get, the harder it is to shop for them.  Now that they’re adults I don’t know what they have, know what they want, know what they like…  I started a Christmas tradition with them years ago:  Send me a direct link to what you want and, within reason, you shall have it.  Four of the six remembered that rule this year.  Thing 3 has been trying to get a Lamborghini outta me for years, but remembered to send a reasonable link.  (We -did- get him a Matchbox Lamborghini one year)

The older -I- get, the more I turn into my grandmother (that’s NOT a bad thing).  I keep my Christmas present book, write down everyone I need to get a gift for, check it off when I get it, cross it out when I wrap it…  I can tell you every Christmas gift I’ve gotten, and for whom, since 1997.  

But now, it’s gotten to the point that I don’t even know what I’m getting the kids.  This is -what-?!?  It shows up at the door a few days after I order ‘whatever’ then I get to open the box, read and wonder “Why didn’t I get one of these for me too?”  The grandkids are even worse.  If I ordered half the things I wanted to, the grandkids wouldn’t ever see ‘em.  I’d play them out before wrapping them.  

One hard rule I try to live by with the grandkids is not to buy them anything that makes noise or takes batteries.  This rule goes -WAY- back to the days when my mom would buy presents for my kids when they were little.  If I didn’t approve of a gift it stayed at her house.

She still has the Barnie Banjo she got for Thing 1 (I -hate- that purple dinosaur), it still works, and has been played by many children.

“I love you.  You love me.  We’re a happy family…”

Happy Sparkles, ya’ll!  

- Bess Tuggle