The holiday season is rapidly approaching and I am officially the world’s worst shopper. This year, Christmas doesn’t seem the same to me — I didn’t decorate the way I normally do, my tree didn’t go up on Thanksgiving evening, my Mom and Carl won’t be leaving Florida, and this is the first year that my Grandmother won’t be eating Christmas dinner and opening gifts — at least not with me.
When my brother, Scott, and I were kids, Christmas was a big deal. We simply didn’t get “stuff” all year long the way that my son, Ben, did. Birthdays were never celebrated to any great extent, but Christmas was a different story…
Owning a grocery store kept our parents busy working long hours, and Mom normally put the tree up a day or 2 before Christmas (which is probably why I want mine up early). We always celebrated with our immediate family on Christmas Eve. I wonder how many years we had that metallic thing with the spinning tri-light that turned the tree green, then red, and then blue.
Mom could seriously hide stuff better than anyone I know — many times, she couldn’t find the purchases when the bulk of the gifts would appear under the tree, so last minute goodies were pretty much expected. My Mom invented the gift bag. FOR REAL! Our gift bags were brown paper sacks from the grocery store with a bow stuck on the side. The really cool thing about that was…our family spent Christmas Day with Nanny’s sister, our Great Aunt Kak, in Indianapolis. She started making fancy bows in March, and the gifts looked incredibly awesome.
Chili was the holiday tradition at the McKain ranch — I remember the grocery store didn’t close until around 8:00 PM on Christmas Eve, and chili was quick and easy. Scott and I couldn’t wait for the adults to snarf down the grub so we could attack those paper sacks, and Mom would notoriously drag her meal on and on and on. Even our Pap-pa would get frustrated, and once said, “Eat the damn chili so these kids can open their presents!” We still say that sometimes.
As kids, our gifts were always the most awesome things. Yes, we were recipients of all those cool toys that should’ve killed us but didn’t that Mike Hall of the Pines talked about in his blog post. I remember one year, Scott got a chemistry set that I wasn’t allowed to play with. Bummer. I remember that he also got GI Joe’s and Pap-pa didn’t like it — boys weren’t supposed to play with dolls. Girls played with dolls, and I remember I would get at least one every Christmas.
This year, the gathering at my house will be smaller. Still, I’m sure it will be wonderful and it’s less than 2 weeks away. I have GOT to shop!