Raccoon's Idea of Christmas

Last year, I focused more on doing special things with the kids and they received many little gifts throughout the month and one large one on Christmas. Raccoon's face fell when he saw our tree on Christmas morning and he asked me, "Where are all the presents?"

His one request for this year was lots of presents, big and small. I do think about materialism and knowing the true reason to celebrate and being thankful and all that, but seeing his little disappointed face last year made me want to do things differently this year. I remember the excitement as a child of seeing a big pile of packages under the tree on Christmas morning. Raccoon gave away over half his toys before we left and he's collecting change in an old juice jug at this very moment to help the poor. So I think he's got it, and will be okay even if he does get a little spoiled this year.

Thankfully, we are in the US, where stuff is easy to come by. Hello Dollar Tree. While the kids were distracted, I piled things into our cart. I ended up with 64 items consisting of some things we needed for the house, a few decorations, and lots of little presents for them.

When we got home, Kitty fell asleep and Raccoon settled in with a movie, so I smuggled the bags in from the car and dumped it all on the bed. I sorted and counted. They are 6 and 2 so there must be the same number of gifts for each, of roughly the same size.

Okay, here is a confession. As a child, I loved wrapping presents. Tonight, after about 10 presents, I peered at the large pile on the bed and wondered... do I really have to wrap them all? Where did all the fun go? Why do I just want to go to bed?

Ha ha. I am apparently an introvert in all areas of my life except present wrapping, and then to be trapped in a room by myself with yards of paper and piles of presents turns me into Scrooge.

My solution? I put everything into bags and will continue later.

Dear Raccoon,

There will be a huge pile of presents under the tree this year, even if I do have to wrap every.single.one.of.them. And someday when you're a daddy and your little boy or girl looks at you, maybe you'll remember this Christmas as one of your favorites.

Love,
Mommy