Christmas Lists

Alright, so everyone who knows me has described me as either anal, organized, structured or a combination of any of the above. I will admit it, I like structure I like to have a plan and stick to it. I love having a list and checking things off them as I accomplish them. I don't know I just function really well with that. So I decided to email my family asking them for their Christmas lists. I thought now is as good a time as any to get started. I travel a lot and sometimes in my spare time I get to go shopping at stores that I don't have at home and I see different things I want to pick up for different people.

Everyone has heard of "Christmas in July." Well, I wanted to start with "Christmas in June." You should have seen the responses I got from my sister, mom, and dad. I don't believe Bill has opened his email for a few days so he didn't get my emails yet. I'm sure he will give me his normal response, "Auty, are you really serious about this?" My sister responded with "Are you crazy? Christmas is so far away then proceeded to ask me what I wanted for my birthday. I don't want much for my birthday-in fact I can't think of one thing. My mom proceeded to call me anal with a laugh and again wanted me to produce a list for my birthday. However, my Dad's response was the BEST of them all. He had said that he thought I was submitting my Christmas wish list to my parents and he was straight up SHOCKED that I had beaten my sister to the punch in submitting the list. I died laughing. For those of you who don't know my sister for every birthday, anniversary, christmas, or any holiday that would require gift giving she always comes up with this MASSIVE list of things she MUST have. It's down right hilarious some of the stuff that she desires. It's the running joke in my family. Traditionally, I am one of the last folks to submit a list of wants/desires for any kind of gifts. I like to get gifts but I love to give them more. I always come up with "Oh, I don't really want anything this year" or "I will let you know what you can get me then I just forget to submit a list or something like that.

I'm serious about wanting my family to give me lists for Christmas. I usually do really well with a direct, specific, and detailed list. I'm not great at just random things that I think people would want or like.

I was missing my sister a lot this week so these emails seemed to hit the spot with her wacky sense of humor and her personality. It's fun to reflect on the past with my family. We are lucky to be so close!