Christmas Giving

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I know I did. And while I'm excited about the holiday that just past, I'm also excited about the event that's coming up: New Years. It's always been one of my favorite holidays, probably because of the long history of college football on that day.

It's kind of weird, though. When I was kid, all I cared about was what I got for Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I still love to "get," but more and more I find myself enjoying watching others open gifts. Most of my family knows that I have an odd fear of opening gifts in front of poeple. I've never been a fan of being the center of attention and more so when gift givers are waiting for a reaction. But I don't know when it happened, but I'm becoming the one looking for the reaction.

I really wish I could spend loads of money buying great gifts, and people love those expensive gifts. But what I've found is it doesn't generally matter the amount of money but rather what the gift means or that you showed a genuine effort in trying to buy a gift that suits the person perfectly. It's also the little things, like how it's wrapped or small extras that add to it. More than having a lot of money spent on them, I think most would rather just know that the person spent time and effort.

Spending money is easy, any one can just swipe a credit card or surf the web. But making a little bit of effort, putting a little elbow grease and creativity into gift giving is what gets the reaction.

On a side note, my only dissapointment this year was that I did not get to watch "The Grinch," "Charlie Brown Christmas," or "Muppet Christmas Carol" this year. All three are Christmas classics and I may have to watch one or all of them in the coming week at some point.

Enjoy what's left of 2007!