Countdown to Christmas...

When you were a kid, did you become a little bundle of twitchy anticipation and impatience in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas? If you were like me--boosted by adrenaline and candy canes and hot cocoa--you alternated between manic fits of breathless excitement, and quiet periods of exhausted sugar-crashes. And then the Toy Catalogs arrived, acting like a brightly-colored Yule Log that sprinkled fuel onto my already-blazing holiday fire. My siblings and I thumbed through the shiny pages so often, they became tattered and smudged. We circled and bookmarked the gifts we wanted to put on our Wish Lists, and wrote out neat, careful copies for my parents and Santa. (Mine probably had footnoted page numbers, attached pictures with descriptive captions, and a bibliography to clearly inform the Elves about where they could locate my Most Wanted Items. Yes, I was a mini-nerd even then...)

And of course my kids now do the same thing with the modern-day, slickly-produced, ginormo Toys 'R Us and Target magazines that plunk down on our driveway with the Sunday paper, before the Thanksgiving turkey and pumpkin pie have even been fully-digested. This year, clutching my coffee on that chilly November morning, I watched them both as they huddled together over the catalog, and listened to them exclaim over all of the cool new video games. As it happens more and more often these days, I got a sudden jolt just then of: "my little boys are...not so little anymore". For the first time that I can remember, they skipped right over the Superhero Action Figures and the Matchbox Cars and the Construction Sets and made a beeline directly to the Electronics section. After thoroughly perusing, rating, and selecting Wii games and DS games, they took a side trip to the Music pages and the Sporting Goods. Then, they were done.

So it seems to me that my 10 and 7-year old sons have ridiculously sophisticated taste for their tender ages, but I'm sure "Santa" will be able to figure it out. (Of course, I annotate their lists for the grandparents with exact item numbers, photographs, and additional product information as necessary...hey, sometimes being a nerd is very helpful!) I do feel sort of nostalgic for those bygone days when they used to sit around on the floor in their pjs on Christmas morning, setting up the Fisher Price Farm or building towers of blocks. This year it'll be louder (when Derek opens his electronic drum pad) and more rambunctious (when they practice shooting goals into their new soccer net--but at least that's outside!) On the upside, I won't be tripping over Little People or zigzagging around wooden houses erected all over the Living Room...and when they calm down long enough to plop on the couch and test out their new games, I will be able to sip my coffee with Christmas peace and joy (I hope)!