The Things We Do for Love...and Christmas

My Christmas seasons have become fairly reasonable in recent years. In fact, I'd almost call them boring. My kids are old enough that I no longer have to go to great lengths to purchase, hide and wrap gifts. If a gift from Santa has a tag with my handwriting on it, that's OK. In fact, it's expected. I still insist that presents be surprises. After all, what's the point? Why give a gift that somebody knows before they even open it? In fact, I have friends who don't even wrap gifts. To me, that's just wrong. To this day, I ask my kids for a list, but then I surprise them with little things that I find as I'm out shopping. Even at the ripe old age of 44, I still love the excitement of Christmas morning when you wake up and look at the pile of gifts under the tree and wonder what the heck they are. To me, there's nothing better. And I'm still the first person up at 6:00 am, even though I don't have to wake up for hours.

The other day I needed to purchase a newly released DVD. Fearing that it would sell out quickly, I arranged to be at the store at 8:00 am to nab one of the first copies. While waiting for the store to open, a woman struck up a conversation with me:

"You're not here for an X Box or a Playstation 2, are you?"
"No."
"Because if you are, they are totally out. I'm just here because I've scoured the city looking for one and absolutely nobody has one. I've called every store in every city surrounding Milwaukee. I called here yesterday and the guy told me that sometimes they get in shipments late in the day and that I should be here right when the store opens so I've been here since 7:15 am. I've already bought all the games and accessories, but I need the game system."
"Well, good luck with that, then."

Besides the fact that she had a panicked and sort of scary look about her, I could feel her pain. She was part of the momhood and she was on a mission to make her child's Christmas everything he wanted. She would not be stopped. To that I say: Been there, done that.

In fact, it's not just Christmas. A few years ago, before my son's 13th birthday, I actually slept overnight outside that same store to purchase a Playstation 2 for him. Something he'd been dreaming about for about a year. Unlike the mom I met yesterday, I was successful and gained enormous "best mom ever" points for a quite a while thanks to that overnighter. And even though it was a sort of weird experience that I only survived thanks to a good friend who was willing to do it with me, it was actually kind of fun.

I look back fondly on those days. It's such a short span of time when as a parent, you can make magic for your children. Nevertheless, I still try. The kid in me just won't let me give up. To me, that's the Christmas spirit.