We all know that the true spirit of Christmas is seen in the phrase "It is better to give than receive." And we all know that Christmas is a celebration of the birth of the Savior. But for some reason, a tradition arose as kids in my home which I have unfortunately taught my kids--this is the tradition of occasionally pulling out all the presents from under the tree and counting how many presents we each have.
Maybe it's the greed of youth. Maybe it's the competitive spirit of siblings. Maybe it's sheer boredom. Something compells me to do it. As an adult, I don't really care about how many presents I've gotten. I'm more concerned with putting the presents back under the tree in an even manner, so that each person's presents are evenly distributed under the tree, not all lumped in one place.
Here are today's present totals (including the 2 presents that haven't been wrapped yet)
Andy: 7
Amanda: 8
Madison: 12
Joel: 12
Abraham: 8
For the family: 3
Let's analyze: Amanda and I have a reasonable # of presents, considering we both tend to buy each other a couple more presents than we're budgeted for. We had to make sure Maddy and Joel got an equal number. There's enough competition as it is. Abe's only a year old, and doesn't care as much, but he's old enough to want stuff to play with. I bought a family present (a DVD) and Maddy made 2 presents for the family.
And now, because I'm reflecting on my youth, here's the opening credits from a cartoon we watched growing up...Behold, "Beverly Hills Teens":
6 comments:
Oh my gosh! It's been so long since the "Beverly Hills Teens" days! I remember really loving that show. I think BH 90210 was just trying to be a cheap rip off.
Well, we don't really count our presents because Ethan never gets mine wrapped until about Christmas Eve. I told him that this year I actually want to spend Christmas Eve with him rather than be banished into a room so he can take forever to wrap presents.
I keep the presents clumped by person, though. I think it just makes it more organized, so that's why I do it. I have to admit that it is nicer to spread them all out. Maybe if we didn't have to gather up most of our presents and bring them to other people then I wouldn't clump them together. As it is, I have plastic bags with presents that go to various other people. The rest of the presents are basically Ethan's.
I guess Christmas just isn't as fun as it used to be.
Yes, it brought back memories for me, too. I wouldn't mind having the presents clumped by person, but with Maddy and Joel passing out presents, it's probably a good idea to have them spread out, so everyone gets a chance.
Ironically, I wrote this blog about materialism overshadowing the true giving spirit of Christmas, and tonight a lady from the ward showed up at our door with a laundry basket full of stuff for the house and toys and treats and a Wal-mart gift card. The Lord really has shown his hand in our lives lately. He must've known we had some rought spots lately. See you at Judy's on Sunday.
That's really cool. I think the best Christmases as a kid were the ones in which the ward helped us. I remember getting some cool presents when we lived on Hacienda Hermosa. And I know the Bishop's Storehouse candies are technically disgusting, but I really liked and have fond memories of the ribbon candies and the chocolate-covered-jelly-ring-whatever-they-weres.
I can't imagine being poor at Christmas and not being Mormon. That would really suck. Wards seem to really take care of each other at Christmas. I know our ward has a few things going on like an "Angel Tree" to get presents for the "less fortunate." Hey, how do you like being known as "less fortunate"?
Whoa! That's a bunch. We've got, like, two things under the tree, hahaha! Well, three, since the TV remote fell off the couch and is now under the tree. I think there's a Lego there too.
I'm actually doing Christmas shopping for the kids on Saturday. That will be the first chance for me to do it, since I'm teaching all day during the week. (And spending half the night working on translation jobs. "Get back to work, Bob Cratchet!") So, there will be a few things under the tree for a couple of days before Christmas.
And how do you get so many as a parent? Seven presents is about six years' worth of Christmas presents for me, or 4 years if you count the one's I buy for myself. Oh, but it probably goes back up to about seven years' worth if you subtract the presents that were supposed to be birthday presents, but didn't get sent to me until December.
>Hey, how do you like being known as "less fortunate"?
I think our ward forgot that we're "less fortunate." They probably think that there's no way it can last this long, hahaha! Apparently, they don't know what grad school is like...
We have had a couple of times, though, that we got some stuff and it really did seem like a miracle. During the nightmarish time we spent in Murray, when everything I touched fell through with glorious consistency, the cupboards were literally bare, and we were a step away from homelessness, somebody left a HUGE bag of Christmas presents, food, and stuff at our front door.
We're way better off this year than we were then.
And I've never even heard of "Beverly Hills Teens." It must have been on when I was in Japan. And after watching that clip, I'm kind of glad...
Dude, I've never even heard of that cartoon? How cheesy, did ya love it? Not me...
Yeah, wards can often be nice like that. We're lucky to have Grandpa Jack (G's biological father) -- he sent Joseph a ride-in little Ferrari! (Hey, why couldn't we have rich biological grandparents?!)
By the way, the Bishop's Storehouse candies are basically the same as back in the day -- weird chocolate-covered gel things.
I prefer the presents well-mixed like Andy.
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