Christmas Means Money

So for the past few weeks my parents have been repeatedly telling me, "Hey, we don't really know what to get for your birthday or Christmas so..." and as much as I enjoy the fact that I can say, "Well, dearest parents, I would very much like to receive..." I also hate that idea.

For one, I have to pick out myself a gift which promotes a number of problems for me, one being, which one do I pick? If there's multiple items I want I suppose in true human fashion, I WANT THEM ALL! But obviously that's not going to happen. So I have to figure out what I want the most and pick it. The problem with that lies in that fact that it seems incredibly greedy to me to pick out my own present. Especially if it's something so trivial as a video game or something like that. As much as I'd like to have Left 4 Dead 2 or Dragon Age or any number of digital diversions, I can't help but feel bad saying, "Hey buy me this. It's Christmas, come on! Come ooooooon!" The second issue with such a gift is that it's not very heartfelt, even less so if I pick it out myself. If my parents were to get me something that I picked, it's not a gift from them, it's a gift from me, to myself, with them as some bizarre middleman. It just feels wrong, especially with so much sentimental value attached the holidays, regardless of whether or not you celebrate wholeheartedly or not.

My father has always been of the opinion that for Christmas and for his birthday, yeah there are things he's like to receive. Sure it's cool to get the whole collection of From Earth To The Moon or a full series of Farscape or some such, but to him, spending time with his family is pretty much all he really wants, and I'm easily the same way (which is only indicative of a wondrous upbringing, thanks daddoo!). A couple weeks back I spent my actual birthday (Dec. 5) over at another friend's house celebrating a dual surprise party for two other friends. The day was 90% not about me and honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm not much for a show of, "HEY LOOKITME I'M AWESOME AND IT'S MY BIRTHDAY DO WHAT I WANT YAAAAAAAY!!!" Instead I was completely happy receiving my "gift" of spending a large portion of the day with a bunch of my friends having a good time. I'd hope to do the same with the quickly approaching Christmas but considering everyone's going to be with family I'm betting we aren't all going to get together for some awesome hang-out session. But that's cool, I enjoy spending time with my family. They're pretty cool actually.

So I'm sitting here with a notepad and pen making a list of "Shit I Would Like To Have" and listing what I'd like, how much it is, and doing a little prioritizing of the items on it. I'm looking over it and most of it seems to be pretty trivial, lame things. They're also all expensive, which makes me feel even worse. Not only am I picking out my own gift from my parents (which doesn't make it much of a gift in my eyes) but it's looking a lot like it's just an excuse to pick something normally out of a price range and say, "BUT IT'S CHRISTMAAAAAAAAAAS!" in a really high-pitched nasally voice.

Happy holidays huh?