A Small Victory

Santa, NAFTA and me

One more day. Just one more day left in this week. It's not that I'm trying to rush time or anything, it's just that Friday always seems so out of reach. It's like those dreams when you are walking down a long hallway and no matter how fast you walk, or how long you walk for, your destination never seems to get any closer. Some weeks just go on forever, feeling like it's always the day before Friday but never Friday itself.

Honestly, I shouldn't be wishing the days away. Thanksgiving is just around the corner and with that holiday comes my annual tradition of panic attacks and grumpiness. I love Christmas. Christmas Eve and Christmas morning are wonderful. I hate getting there, though. I hate the pressure of getting shopping done, and I hate shopping itself more than anything. To make matters worse, my kids no longer believe in Santa Claus, so I can't blame him if the presents don't live up to expectations. In years past I used to say "Oh, I guess Santa didn't realize you were over that Crazy Bones fad already!" while gritting my teeth and cursing every commercial on tv. And truthfully, my kids are pretty good about accepting presents they didn't really want or at least pretending to be grateful when they open a package of underwear from Aunt Jo. I'm the one with the problem. I'm the one who agonizes from November til December about finding the absolutely perfect gift for each person. I'm the one who thinks that there should be this magical wonderful sea of presents underneath the tree on Christmas morning. I was thinking if they could have just held on a bit longer to the notion that some fat guy with flying reindeer stuffs himself into their chimney every year to deliver Playstation games and N'Sync cds, then I could have told them a great story about Santa running a sweatshop and the elves revolting and how it all ties in to the evils of free trade....well, I thought I could give them a lesson in the harsh reality of world economics, making it appear to be Santa's ruthlessness and greed that is to blame for their being no X-Box under the tree this year.

But no, they had to go and find out that like most Catholic holiday icons (see, Easter Bunny, Jesus...), Santa is a myth. There's gotta be some way to blame George W. for the non-appearance of a Playstation2...