tis the season

yes tis. but the season of what? eating? excess? vanity? forgiveness? take your pick but do it wisely.

no, no "ba humbug." just typed that in.

i've always liked christmas and the season surrounding it. seems like once halloween gets here it's holiday season from that point on. hell, even all the stores in our area had their christams displays up WAY before halloween even got here. the cold weather's already set in. it got here a little later than in years past but it's definitely here now. just hoping i have enough wood split to last the winter.

playing cards on the laptop last night and the wife asks me to try to find something unusual but cool for a present for our son. he's always liked guns and a couple years ago papaw got some authentic guns, albeit fake, that looked, felt and were as heavy as the real ones. somewhere along the lines of guns i found these.

i've never seen a marshmallow gun before but they look neat as hell and they shoot marshmallows, not rocks or sticks or anything else. one of them shoots the big ones up to 40 feet away. i can just see landon and me outside around the house, in his tree house, around the barn, in the woods shooting marshmallows at each other. along the way we get tired and take a break and use our ammo for a snack. so, i bought 2 bows and 2 guns. all of them use the mini ones and not the big ones. should be fun.

the two girls are getting clothes, which i'm sure is a sign of things to come and continue. clothes and jewelry, and more clothes, latest styles, fashion magnates they'll both become. one of them likes princess things while the other is in to a couple babies and her puppies. i think stuffed animals are a little cheaper. it's amazing that both of them have more clothes than i do! their closets are crammed the way it is and they'll be even more stuffed on 12/26. but as long as they're happy then it's all good.

i remember when i was a kid how i loathed getting clothes. i wanted toys. i never had the speak & spell that i wanted. didn't get the simon or any of the other cool games. i think my brother got a coleco football game that i always wanted.

when we were a little older we actually got an atari. had a couple games like asteroids and pitfall with it and we traded games with one of the neighbor kids who lived just down the building from us. we did have, at our gramma's house, one of the first versions of "pong." one of my uncles was a software magnate in california and they sent us the game to have one year. at the time it was the neatest thing!

after i got older, a couple years ago my mom actually asked me what i wanted for christmas. she had told me that she wanted to know what i wanted, not what i needed. so i told her i wanted an xbox. i got it and loved it. stil have it down in the basement. still have all the NASCAR and golf games with it but 3 kids doesn't necessarily lend me a lot of time to play it like i used to. too bad i can't have it at work when things are slow. might make the days go a little faster.

as everyone gets older their likes change, their desires change, their needs change. when i was a kid i wanted toys, i needed clothes, i desired all the cool things everyone else had. now that i'm a father i want clothes because i need the cool things because i desire the toys. well, maybe not quite like that. i still want the toys but i know i need other things first. what i realize most is that my family needs to come before me in every respect. i can deal without a lot of things. if they're happy, that's all that counts. i tend to me too materialistic and i need to get away from that. i just hope that they don't get that way and miss a lot of what they could be having and doing without all those gadgets.

hell, just give me one of these and i'll be happy. we'll see what sort of things i get this year. if nothing, no problem. i'll settle for my family being safe, healthy, and happy. that'll be present enough after a very long, trying, tough year for all of us.