Best Christmas Present Ever

This year there was a series of TV commercials (for a car, I think) showing grown ups reminiscing about their favorite Christmas present ever. They got me to thinking about what mine would be, but I’ve had a hard time narrowing the choices down! We may not have had much money, but my parents always made Christmas HUGE for us kids. I’m sure they went WAY beyond their means, but it was important to them for Christmas to be special. I look at my 14 year old nephew, who this Christmas alone, received an iPod Touch, a mini Dell laptop and Britney Spears concert tickets, never mind all the small stuff! I think, “Wow, he’s SPOILED.”

But the fact is, I was spoiled too! I’m still spoiled! I had not one, not two, but THREE family Christmas celebrations this year and then left on a week long trip to San Francisco the day after Christmas. Spoiled, no bones about it. Never mind that I really shouldn’t have spent the money on the trip. I went with my baby sister, who I also went to New York City with two years ago. We may not always be able to travel together and we’re very lucky we can stand to be around each other 24/7 for a week. (Minus a few small disagreements that passed very quickly and the time she mistook my arm for a pillow.)

But more importantly – and forgive me if I sound cliché here – I’m also spoiled because my family is so close. (Cue Anne Murray singing, “Even though we ain’t got money…” here.) We truly are lucky to have each other, even if we don’t always realize it. So one of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to appreciate the people in my life more – as much as we appreciated “Tigger” that year at Christmas! We didn’t care that he wasn’t the real Tigger from Winnie the Pooh – in our minds, he was real. We jumped on and played with that giant stuffed “Tigger” until all his stuffing came out. I think I was in high school when mom was finally able to sneak what was left of him out of the house for good. I can still feel the tough stuffing of his insides and smell the slightly musty, smoky fur…