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'Tis "The Season"

 

The older I get, the faster these laps around the sun seem to go. Believe it or not, the “Christmas Season” is upon us again.

In our house, that means a headlong plunge into the craziness the day after Thanksgiving. We decorate the house, count the days until the older kids return from college, and scrutinize and strategize over everyone’s Christmas lists.

It’s interesting how your kids’ personalities reveal themselves through these lists. My daughter Aran asked for a puppy over and over (and over) for Christmas, birthdays, Arbor Day, Snow days, and pretty much every single other “Day” until she finally wore us down and “Elwood” the King Charles spaniel entered our lives. Our oldest Kealan, a technology devotee, consistently asks for computer components whose functions we don’t understand and whose names we can’t pronounce. Daughter Caitlin has never asked for an elaborate Christmas present. Not once.

All in all, our kids have been pretty reasonable. We’ve never actually had to deal with a kid who HAD to have the hot gift of the year; no Tickle Me Elmo, no Sony Wii, or Furby Quest. But the fates finally caught up with us this year: our 15-year-old son Liam wants a Sony PlayStation 4.

Thinking back on my own Christmas desires, I pondered what had been my most exciting Christmas present (what was yours?). I remember a robotic dinosaur, a sled, a train set and, believe it or not but it’s the Double-Dog-Dare-Me truth, a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun. Yes, long before the movie “A Christmas Story” made this thing famous, I myself received one of these “blue steel beauties.” And I still have it.

But that wasn’t my most amazing gift. The best gift I ever received was a simple Christmas card which read simply: “Look out the window”. There in our driveway sat a 1965 Chevrolet Corvair convertible. A car for Christmas? What kind of parents spoil their child with a gift like this? Well, she was a ’65 model and this was Christmas of 1974 so she was pretty dented up. I didn’t care if Ralph Nader said these cars were “unsafe at any speed”.  To me, she was a beauty. I loved her so much that I keep a die cast model of her parked right here on my desk.(1)

A dream gift like this was so far off the radar screen that I never even considered asking for one. But apparently my parents had been flying all over the state trying to make it work, and ultimately procured one for $120.00. That’s no typo and inflation has not been that bad; it’s still the equivalent of only $378.12 today. Not that I wanted to even crack open the possibility of chasing a new “it” toy, but I did find myself wondering if I was going to be able to do so well for Liam at that number.

Thanks to the age of immediate information, I learned that shortage is no longer an issue on these things; you no longer need to run from mall to mall hoping to find one last box on the shelf. No, you just key “Sony Playstation 4” into Google and it turns out that a whole crowd of people will Fedex one to your house tomorrow!

For just $1,499.00.

Well, some decisions are easier than others. A vision is forming in my brain…a card under the tree for Liam,…and an old truck out in the driveway that he and I can restore together.

The pressures of the holidays can make it difficult to embrace the underlying goodwill spirit of this time of year. All I can say is: try to relax and take a moment to remember when you were presented with your heart’s desire. Whether it was an “official-Red-Ryder-carbine-action-two-hundred-shot-Range-Model-air-rifle-with-a-compass-in-the-stock-and-this-thing-which-tells-time” or an old rusty heap of a car. There, in that moment, may you find your spirits lifted without risk of “shooting your eye out”.

My wife Beeb and I, and our children Kealan, Caitlin, Aran and Liam (and even Elwood) hope you had a Happy Hanukkah, enjoy a Merry Christmas, and have a safe and Happy New Year.

I look forward to seeing you all in 2014, Frank C. Kilcoyne, CSSC.

(1) Unfortunately I did not care for the Corvair as well as I did my Red Ryder. She met a sad end, spewing major engine components across Interstate 80 a few years later. My last glimpse was of her being towed off into the mist on a cold January night…