Unsentimental Mamma

I am not sentimental. At all. I never have been. You can ask my poor husband. I typically don't remember our wedding anniversary until a few days before hand, and never have a gift for him. When I do finally remember, the conversation goes something like this.

Me- “Crap, it’s our anniversary this week”!
DH- “Yes it is. (insert number) of years”!
Me- In a panicky tone “You didn’t get me anything, did you”?

Don’t feel too bad for him. He secretly loves me for it.

I also suck at birthday gifts and cards. But I think my lameness truly shines at Christmas. No I do not keep any kind of lists. I will not remember what it was in the catalog that you pointed out. And I will never walk through a store see something and think of you. It's not personal, it just is.

You see I come from a huge immigrant family. There is a certain mentality you need to have as an immigrant in order to survive in your much loved newly adopted country. That is practicality. My parents are nothing if not practical.

I remember being asked what I wanted for Christmas and then going out shopping for it with my mom. If it was too expensive I’d have to pick out something else. I’d then come home and put it under the tree. My parents did not need to find the time between working their double shifts to run around shop for toys and then hide them around the house. I also have memories of my dad coming home from work handing me a toy in a brown paper bag and declaring that this was my Christmas present. He did this typically a week or so before Christmas. See? Practical.

As I got older I did start to have an inkling that things were done differently in other households. Santa gave you more than one toy? You don’t go shopping for your own gifts? Your dad didn’t decorate the tree to look like the American flag?

I bet now you’re thinking; when she was old enough to know about all the “Christmas Magic” she missed out on she must have let them have it. Maybe even how now that I have children of my own I have turned into some crazed Martha Stewart type and have the house decorated the day after Thanksgiving with all the gifts purchased and wrapped. But none of that happened.

Do I “do” Christmas differently in my house? You know I do. But it doesn’t come naturally to me. I really have to think about it. For instance I still haven’t taken our family Christmas card picture. In fact it will most likely turn into a Happy New Year card, once again. LOL!