Trick or treating for Christmas presents

It seems like every year, the Christmas spirit sneaks up on me a little sooner than it did the year before. It's barely October and I'm already in the holiday mood! I think I get that from my dad. Most of my memories that I have with him are associated with Christmas because that was the only time of year that he insisted that we stay with him and that we stayed more than a weekend. I don't like a lot of things about him, but he used to crack me up during the holidays. He would just be walking through the house, chewing tobacco or picking his nose or whatever it was, and all of a sudden, he would start dancing and singing Jingle Bells or Rudolph at the the top of his lungs. My dad and I are alike in that you can actually see a shift in mood from one moment to the next and it doesn't take much to make us break into song and dance. I do the exact same thing sometimes and it makes me happy in a weird, nostalgic way.

So, all that nonsense having been said, I've caught Christmas Fevah, baby! I'm so incredibly stoked about it; I can't wait. Christmas is so much more fun now that I have a baby. He drives me to do incredibly uncharacteristic things, such as wake up at 5 a.m. just to go to Toys R Us to get him the latest Elmo. I was up at 4 a.m on Christmas Eve last year, trying to put his kitchen together (lovingly referred to as that damn peice of f*%$ing s@!&*) and let me tell you...was that a pain in the heiny. For some strange reason (probably derangement), the people who make these blasphemous toys insist on including thousands of little stickers that crinkle and stick all over themselves (and everything but the spot where they're supposed to be) if you so much as dare to breath or look at them funny. After I fought with the entirety of Satans Sticker Collection, I painstakingly wrapped all of his other stuff in Bert and Ernie wrapping paper (I am by no means a gift wrapping artist. I am personally responsible for the huge success of the gift bag). Finally, I crawled into bed, managed to close my eyes for about an hour and then it was up for Christmas breakfast and the unveiling of his christmas presents (Read: All of Mommy's Hard Work). I grabbed him out of bed and we went squealing into the living room...where he proceeded to watch me open his christmas presents while he peeled all the stickers off his kitchen.

You think it sounds bad. You think it sounds sucky. But it is all worth it. It's worth it and so much more to see the look on his face when he finally wakes up and realizes Hey, I have a refrigerator with magnets on it...and a microwave and a stove.... I've cried every Christmas since he's been born and I think it's a tradition. Most people grow out of the Christmas spirit, but I've had to grow into it. It took having a baby and finally being able to be with my own mother on Christmas (yes, that's what I said...I've been with my mother on Christmas a grand total of 2 times now) to really get into it. I don't have to be dragged around to distant relatives houses and forced to make excited noises and faces with every sweater I open. I just get to hang out with my kid and my real family and decorate the tree and fight and eat too much and then take a biiiigg nap.

Ho ho ho bitches...it's Christmas time!