In The Mood For Christmas . . .

OK - so today, on the way home from work, I decided I was ready to get into the Christmas mood. It is, after all, December 16th - only a skosh more than a week until the big day! I had talked to my wife on the phone, and knew the whole rest of the family was in town shopping. I have asked for my usual nothing this year, not being in the mood to even want anything. You see, I've lived long enough as a dad in a single income family to know that any cash I get at Christmas gets conveniently spent on bills. So I don't exactly get excited about the prospects. But that's OK, as long as I can spend it on my wife, kids, parents, in-laws, neighbors, dogs, cat and goats - I keep telling myself I'm happy. I digress . . . So, I determined that when I got home, I was going to pop in some Mannheim Steamroller, Kenny G Christmas, and any other Christmas, crank up the base enough to vibrate the cabinet doors, fix myself some dinner (Rally's Philly Cheesesteak Cheeseburgers - refrigerated from the evening before) and put on my Christmas game face. I was stoked. As I drove into the driveway, I grabbed my stuff out of the car and rolled into the house. Put my stuff away and headed for the Bose Acoustic Wave Machine. As usual for my flavor of luck, not a single Christmas CD was to be found - anywhere. I looked through every CD beside the Bose. Mind you, these Christmas CD's L-I-V-E in the rack beside the Bose - right on the Kitchen table/counter/horizontal-pile-on-er. They are always there - without fail. Except this day. There I was. Now, instead of kicking back, with the NFL Network on the tube in front of me, and Chip Davis cranking from the kitchen, and me really starting to get into this Christmas thing - I was steamed. I looked high and low, even braving the upstairs landfill my sixteen year old daughter proudly calls her bedroom - to look for them in there. But they were nowhere to be found. Nowhere any normal, season greetings loving guy would look. About an hour later, my family all came home, and I ever so calmly asked my family (OK - so I was still steamed and I more or less bellowed it) "DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHERE ALL OF THE CHRISTMAS CD'S WENT?" My lovely wife calmly (yea, she's really that way) said she'd moved them and just forgot to put them back. So now, here I am. At the kitchen table/counter/horizontal-pile-on-er, writing this blog with Chip Davis and Kenny G doing their magic. Another holiday salvaged. I'm truly getting into the mood, as I see the joy of the kids coming to me and telling me what they got each other and hoping I'll slip and tell them what their siblings got them . . . Yea - It's Christmas and I'm ready!