when did Christmas lists get so hard?

When I was little, coming up with a wish list was a piece of cake. It was the cutting down the list to make it feasible that was difficult. I'd cut up catalogues and magazines and glue the pictures of the things I wanted onto some paper and have a list probably at least 10 pages long for my parents. I remember the dilemma of said project was when I wanted two things that were on either side of a page.

Hmmm. Tricky.

But I just emailed my Mom my list and not only is it much more bare than my lists from fifteen years ago, it's also a little boring.

Part of the problem is that I want "grown-up" things that won't easily pack in my suitcase to bring back from Texas, like these cappuccino mugs from my favorite place: Crate & Barrel. Three Christmas' ago I got a blender. Two years later, blender was still sitting in Texas and I went out and bought a new one with my Bed Bath & Beyond coupon (that thing was never going to get mailed to me and I would never have the space in my suitcase to pack it up).

Books, DVDs, all well and good...but boring. Am I right? There's nothing new, nothing sparkling, nothing I've had my eye on all year and would wait up all night for Santa to put it under the tree. There are no dollhouses, no bikes, no ice skates (although...maybe I should ask for another pair. I miss ice skating).

And as cheesy as it might sound, the thing I'm looking forward to most this Christmas isn't something I'll get under the tree (unless maybe it was the key to a new Aston Martin sitting outside), but I'm mostly just looking forward to going home and spending some time with the family, and kittens, with the holiday decorations up, good food and drink, and some downtime.

So this is growing up.