Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Bink. Splat. "Waaaa!" That is the sound of my sister running on Christmas Day 1981. Then she stubs her toe and makes her usual graceful fall into some furniture. This seemed to be a ritual of hers that happened every year. Now that I think about it, I bet it happened every day. We just noticed it on Christmas. When I was a kid we usually had at least one relative over for Christmas. I often wonder what they thought about us as we ripped through our presents. It was always cool getting toys and other stuff, although most of the time no one knew what to get us for Christmas. I remember always wanting cool Star Wars toys and getting things like "Spaceman Joe". Other times I would get a whole GI Joe base and I didn't collect any of the characters.  Then there was the same pink nightgown that my sister would get from my great aunt. I think she got it for a couple of years. I remember always wanting a real robot and I remember seeing the blank stares on their faces as there was no way to get it, it kind of sucks wanting something that doesn't exist yet. I remember every year asking my parents if we could open one gift on Christmas Eve because my friends were allowed to. The answer was always no, but every year I still had to ask. In watching the old Christmas tapes I can see how the Christmas opening was orchestrated by my mother - "Brian open this gift first, then your sister opens one" "Melinda don't touch that, that's for Brian" "You all got the same amount of toys" "Brian put that piece of paper in this box". We were always told to write the names down to send everyone a thank you note. That was good, but as I got older I remember always writing them and never getting them. As I got older and my parents got divorced things started changing to where we had to get dressed up after Christmas morning and go over to a hotel. We called that Christmas number 2. That was pretty cool because we felt like we were getting dual presents. All in all Christmas was still fun enough to look forward to every year. At that age we always received the greatest gift of them all, no school.

Thought of the Day

"Are you even vaguely familiar with the concept of giving? There's no grace period."

"Well, didn't he re-gift the label maker?"

"Possibly."

"Well, if he can re-gift, why can't you de-gift?"

- Jerry and George, in "The Label Maker"