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Christmas Shopping
From: Jon Morgan To: Public cc: Being Jon Morgan Tonight, Josh and I ventured out for some Christmas shopping while Theresa, Elijah, and Kayla were at the local ice skating rinks Holiday Skate night. The goal tonight was for Josh to pick out a gift for his sister, and for me to pick out a gift for all of the kids. When I asked Josh what he was going to get for his sister, he pretty much said that he didnt have any ideas. I didnt have any firm plans, either, but I hoped that I would find something while we were in the stores. Josh and Kayla are both hard to shop for when it comes to gift hunting because theyve grown too old for action figures or stuffed animals. Joshs biggest interest right now is video games, and Kayla is really into ice skating. That doesnt leave much to choose from, unless you count music, movies, or clothes. It is mucher easier to shop for 10-month-old Elijah, although to be honest there isnt much that doesnt entertain him these days. The one thing that I realized as a parent is that we could have saved a lot of money if we had skipped buying actual toys for our kids and instead gave them simpler things like cardboard boxes or sheets of bubblewrap. Our search for Christmas presents brought us to several different stores Staples, Radio Shack, Dunhams, and Kmart. There were a number of things that caught my eye which I was tempted to get as presents but ended up

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passing up. In Dunahms, I looked at a pair of size 12 mos camoflage overalls that would have looked good on Elijah. Josh didnt agree. While we were in Kmart, I had to take a picture of one of the Darth Vader figures (dolls?) that were on display. The thing was so big, it would have been taller than Elijah. I couldnt see how anybody would be able to play with it, and nearly choked when I saw that it was $35.

In my post, I wrote that the stores are always so crazy this time of year. Even Darth Vadar is out shopping for last minute gifts. I hoped to frame Darth Vadar so that he looked life-sized, but actually ended up posting the wrong photo. Kmart was our last stop. We checked out, and then headed to Arbys for dinner.

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Sometimes, I wonder why as parents we put ourselves through the stress of finding the perfect gift for our kids. In the back of my mind, I know that I am partially driven by the anticipation of seeing their surprise on Christmas morning when they open up their presents and find that theyve gotten just what they wanted. But, these moments are so fleeting.

Last Sunday we celebrated an early Christmas with my in-laws. Everyone got together at my mother-in-laws house, we ate dinner together, and then we opened the presents. For most of the evening it felt like it really was

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Christmas until we turned on the TV or reminded ourselves that it was really December 22, and that Christmas was still around the corner. I hope that as my kids grow older, they will come to realize that seeing family is more important during the holidays than the gifts are exchanged. Suggest Changes | View as Google Doc | Write Response