A Not-so-Grown-Up Christmas Wish

I'm spending Christmas with Qait's family this year. How cool is that? I can't go home for Christmas---it's a long story, but essentially it comes down to these two facts: I'm poor. And I went home for Thanksgiving.

Before you give me weird looks (or rather, before you give my blog weird looks, since you'll be reading it, not looking at me) and ask why I was crazy enough to pick Thanksgiving over Christmas, I'll preempt that right now and say that it was based on a mistaken assumption that since I was so homesick last Thanksgiving, I wouldn't mind the switch. I do mind it, but I figured that out after plane ticket prices skyrocketed, so here I am. In Utah for Christmas.

But it's not so bad. After all, I'll be spending Christmas with Mom & Dad Boatright (who, as the terms "mom" and "dad" might suggest, are like secondary parents to me), Qait and her family, and a smattering of other Boatright sisters who all feel like real sisters to me. Really, I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend Christmas besides spending it with my biological family.

So anyway, I've been doing some Christmas shopping for Qait, Michael, and the kids (shopping for Ender and Scarlett was way more fun than it should have been---I really should be too old to have that much fun in the toy section of the store...), and they, in turn, have been asking about my Christmas wishlist.

Normally, I'm pretty chill and perhaps a little too brutally practical about my Christmas gift list. My presents in the last few years have included: A new cell phone. A box of socks and underwear (okay, yeah, maybe you shouldn't know that...). Kitchen utensils. Basically, things that I need. And it's nice to have them. But trust me, it's really hard to light up and get excited over a freshly unwrapped box of socks (unless you start composing a ridiculous, rhymey little jingle in your head like I just did).

This year, I took a look at my list of needs: A new hard drive. Adobe InDesign. A car. Replacement DVD R/W drive for my computer. An iPad or a smartphone (yes, they actually do fall more under the "need" category than the "want" category, although they are not urgent). Now, if you haven't noticed, all of those things are just a little bit---okay, a LOT---on the expensive side. As in, a few hundred dollars over everyone's budget.

So I looked for cheaper things, and they all turned out to be books and movies. Pure entertainment. I don't even want educational books or movies.

And I feel so darn guilty about it.

I haven't had a Christmas wishlist composed entirely of frivolous wants for at least five years now. I feel so irresponsible about my Christmas wishes, and I'm not entirely sure that I dislike it.

You know, it's a sad, sad day when your wants are cheaper than your needs. The only needs I have that are cheap enough are food, toilet paper, and other normal grocery-shopping items. But I do NOT want those for Christmas. That would be a little too close to getting coal in my stocking. (And I've been a good girl this year: no running with scissors for me!)

So yeah. That's one major bummer about becoming an adult: your toys are a lot more expensive. Do you remember the days when a $5 carton of mini-figurines (for me it was those plastic horses) was enough to send you dancing around the house in glee? Grown-up toys don't even exist in the $5-$15 range (and no, horrible white-elephant gifts do not count).

And this is my not-so-grown-up Christmas wish: I wish that I were not so grown up; then my presents would be super easy to afford. :)
(Good thing I don't mind paperback books, I guess.)