CHRISTMAS – HOW MUCH DO WE REALLY NEED?

Today after work I went for a walk with both my boys and during our conversation we talked about what they want for Christmas.   When the boys were young Christmas was easy – The Sears Wishbook came around in September and they would excitedly pick several things that Santa could bring.  Now at the age of 10 and 12 things are far more complicated, there are so many items out there I think their brains go into overload and they have no idea what they want.   Back to my question then – Christmas – How much do we really need?  When we got home from our walk, my ten-year old couldn’t decide what to write on his wish list so he went to the computer and looked up Walmart’s website to get ideas.  After going through the website he still couldn’t answer my question,  “What do you want for Christmas?”  I’m so tired of all the consumer mania of Christmas, the running around and standing in crowded stores trying to figure out what to buy.   I think it would be great if we didn’t buy any gifts.  We could just get up Christmas morning, all of us sit down to a nice breakfast, relax in the living room in front of the tree and just take our time, enjoy each other’s company and savour the moment!  I suggested this to the boys, because if they can’t decide what they want then they must not need anything, so we could have a giftless Christmas.  Both boys just stared at me and it didnt’ take long before they found items that they want for Christmas.  The thought of a giftless Christmas scared them into a wish list.  Another Christmas with gifts, however, we will also savour the moment and enjoy!

BAFOON IN THE MONKEY SUIT

Last weekend, like all of our weekends, it was a loaded one.  Hockey practices, hockey games, painted a room, carved pumpkins, finished  Halloween decorations, made chilli for guest coming over Halloween night – just to name a few.  Sunday morning I went to my son’s hockey game for 9:15 am.  I’m sitting in the stands waiting for the kids to go on the ice and I see this bafoon in a monkey suit walking in the lower part of the arena.  He goes into the other team’s bench and I realize he’s the head coach.  I sat there for a moment and thought, why the hell is this guy wearing a Gorilla suit, then it dawns on me – its Halloween.  The only person in the whole arena wearing a Halloween costume.  At first I thought he looks like an idiot and an idiot he did look like!  He then scanned the crowd, I’m not sure what or who he was looking for, when he scanned my area I gave him a thumbs up, for which he rewarded me with his hands up and beat his chest.  I guess he was looking for some kind of approval or attention.  I mean wouldn’t you, you’re the only guy in the crowd in a gorilla suit and no one is paying attention.  After watching the first period of the game, I realized this guy in the gorilla suit is not such an idiot.  Our team kept skating by and staring at him and before we knew the gorilla suit guy’s team was up by 3 points and we scored a big fat 0.  The gorilla suit guy kept giving hand signals and jumping up and down, excuse the pun, like a monkey and his team just kept coming fast and pounded us.  By the end of the game the score was 6 – 1 for the gorilla team!  I guess you can say the last laugh was on me.  When the game was finished everyone piled onto the ice, gorilla and all, to shake hands and do the respectable thing.  I didn’t have my camera and it was one of those Kodak moments.  Everyone shaking hands in the lineup and here is gorilla suit guy giving everyone a high-five.  You’ve got to give that man an a for effort – effort that paid off!