As the collective holidays loom near.... I've become increasingly aware of a strange phenomenon that seems to become more apparent every year:
Time seems to snowball faster and faster just...as...soon...as one passes the invisible line between childhood and adulthood. As a child, summers lasted FOREVER and the holidays could never come fast enough, especially for me, since my birthday lands in December, too.
Waiting...waiting...waiting...all those months for packaged gifts was tortuous, to say the least. I got in trouble (on more than one occasion) for slitting my Christmas presents open in the morning and sneakily re-wrapping them so they would appear untampered for the "official" unwrapping with family and the home video camera.
This "officialness" would not begin until after 6 p.m. Christmas evening, once my grandparents arrived. It was enough to make any kid scream ~ especially a Sagittarian one-- forced to wait nearly 11 months before any gifting.
Don't even get me started on the old, "This is your birthday / Christmas present" cheap shot I've heard many, many times in my lifetime...Historically, this statement has been uttered by my little brother most often, the same little brother who ratted me out on my clever "Slit/Re-wrap holiday scheme" after several years of successfully getting away with it, scotch-tape free, so to speak.
The funny thing is that now that I'm an adult, the receiving of gifts isn't really all that important anymore. The magic of the holidays has not lost its allure by any means, but now my greatest pleasure is giving gifts and spreading the happiness of the season with others.
Although that sounds even sappier than I had intended, the idea is the same: It really is better to give than receive. The greatest thing is that all that re-wrapping of childhood gifts has made me an excellent adult gift-wrapper!
Copyright © 2007 Kendra Liedle
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