We all enjoy receiving presents any day of any year, and for many years my children would ask me about what I wanted for Christmas, and I’d reply, “Not a thing.”
And I’ve been asked the same again this year, and as a 53-year-old man with a wonderful wife of 25 years and two kind kids, both of whom are adults making valuable contributions to society, what else could a husband and father want?
My consistent answer puzzled them for more than a decade, and they would try to purchase for me clothes I’d never wear, and jackets and gloves and ski caps. One year, my daughter bought me a director’s chair, and let me tell you just how well my clothes hang off of it.
But need is a completely different story.
Because of what I do for a living, desktops, laptops and other such devices do not last for extended periods of time, and neither do notebooks, memo pads, desk chairs, or cell phones. As a journalist, those are the tools of my trade that are utilized who knows how many times per day. Add to the equation that much of what is manufactured today, I believe, are intended to be disposable.
One year, a week before Santa’s annual visit, though, I had to purchase a new laptop because my desktop’s operating system delivered me the blue screen of death. The portable unit was far more affordable at the time, so that was the adopted option.
But the wife and children were puzzled again, wondering why I would not have placed such an acquisition on my Wish List for Christmas, but after I explained the need for it, that dynamic trio figured it out.
“Hey Dad, what do you need right now?”
Since that holiday, oh boy, the great gifts have included external hard drives and memory cards and CPUs and even some WVU apparel that wasn’t accidentally bought in the ladies’ department. But this year, who knows? When they ask me about those needs, they attempt to do so in a not-so-obvious manner so not to reveal their plans and to preserve the moment of surprise and satisfaction.
So, just in case one of the kids finds this commentary, I’d like to offer them the only thing on my Wish List for this year … I just need you to be happy.
A bit ‘Tis the Season’ sappy, sure, but it is at this time of year when we tend to conjure memories of past Christmases. The wave of presents they encountered and the joy of the surprises from Santa during a time when Mom and Dad could make their kids, and their entire souls, happy. Perhaps the same is possible today, but not on that level.
There are those moments when your children are in their 30s when a toaster oven results in a big hug from your daughter, and a rifle warrants a fist bump and guy-hug from your son, but if there’s something else is bugging them?
Happiness … yup … that’s what I need, and what we all need – and want – for Christmas.
