I always get antsy at this time of the year. The face that Dec. 01 is just a few days away does nothing to dissuade me from this anxiety. I suppose it stems from the fact that my dad would always torment me during Christmastime when I was younger. The usual holiday routine would go like this, as soon as presents appeard beneath the tree:

Dad: Marty, c’mere.

Marty: What?

Dad: I see you’ve got some presents under the tree, and so do I.

Marty (excited): Yeah!

Dad: I’ll tell you one of yours if you’ll tell me one of mine.

Marty: Ok! *doing the anxiety jig*

Dad: No, that’s ok. I don’t want to know *laughs*

That’s how it went from roughly the first week of December all the way until Christmas Eve, when relief was given in the form of one present to be opened. Of course, this wouldn’t happen until after my grandmother came and we feasted on a meal made of only sausage type products and cheese. I think there were some biscuits in there somewhere. The only variation came when my dad switched “I’ll tell you what one of yours is” to “I’ll let you open one of yours.” This only created greater fervor on my part, leaving me a shaking, sleepless wreck on Christmas Eve that took any hiss or thump in the house past 10:00 p.m. as a sure sign that Santa was downstairs working his gift-giving magic. By the time Christmas morning arrived and passed, I was an emotional wreck, passing out at 6:00 p.m. stuffed full of Christmas ham, stuffing, and chocolate pie.

So maybe that’s why I get antsy each year around this time, but it is a great time of the year. I enjoy putting up decorations, which I did today and hope to have pictures of tomorrow. I like wrapping presents, which consists of me wrapping paper around the gift, wadding up the ends, and tapping them down, complete with sparkly bow. I like cookies, candies, and other goodies that we only get at Christmas, like my father-in-law’s wontons. I enjoy the anticipation of snow, the look on people’s faces when you give them gifts, and going to Christmas parties.

In fact, I like it so much that my wife and I may have broken a cardinal law of Christmastime. See, somehow, we’ve already given each other our gifts. Yeah, I know, you’re supposed to wait until December 25, but on a whim this past Sunday I asked her if she wanted to just go ahead and gift each other our gifts, and she was all like “Yeah!” So we did it. We sat down, and without having wrapped them, we just passed out gifts. It was awesome. So now she has what she’s been pining for for months, and I have some new Transformers. I don’t know if we’ll do this again next year, but who knows. It was freeing in a way, but on the other hand, I suppose people might think we are some kind of weird folk for forsaking traditional Christmas practice. Until then, i will sip my hot chocolate, eat my wontons, and enjoy Christmas my way, at my pace.