"God save me from Christmas. It's another humbug".

I am going to be Scrooge today. Why?

I don't like Christmas.

Correction: I don't like what Christmas has become.

My family was never big on the whole Americanized consumer driven Christmas. We never got the heaps of expensive presents and didn't go wild decorating our house with tacky displays of Santa and his reindeer. I felt jipped as a little kid heading back to the first day of school after Christmas break, as all the other kids bragged about what expensive toys they unwrapped under the tree.

I get it now though! I had an epiphany at some point! Those gifts were pretty much meaningless, especially to this day. Gifts which are now either broken, hidden away, or given away. Granted there are some real special gifts that people do hold on to and remember as special, but the majority are completely outdated and forgotten.

Now, what do I remember from my winters with my family? I remember those special ski trips we took together. It makes sense to me now why we probably didn't have extravagant Christmas'. Taking a family skiing 3-4 times a year gets rather pricey. Man do I have fantastic family quality memories from those trips. My favorite of which were the car rides back together in our old Jeep, sharing together and over exaggerating our skiing adventures from that day. What fun! I much rather have those fantastic memories then a.......well darn....I can't even think of what toys were popular back then that I wanted. Guess that proves my point even more.

With that I have come up with a creative Christmas gift idea for our future cute Dyken's children. On Christmas day we can unwrap different small boxes with little clues to weekend trips for the rest of the year. Perhaps we can have them open one box that simply gives a budget. I mean kids these days kids are smart enough to know how to use Travelocity. Have him or her plan the trip, to wherever they want to go, and spend the money however they like. Want to stay in a cruddy motel and use the rest of the cash on souvenirs, food, and adventurous activities? sure! Stay in a swanky hotel eating Easy Mac, homemade sandwiches, playing board games, and swimming all day? Great!

Call me Scrooge for not liking (the new) Christmas, but I am surely grateful that my parents did not waste their hard worked earnings away on petty gifts. Instead they were financially responsible, and were able to provide me with great family memories, an education, and a stable home. "Keeping up with the Jones'" is just a deadly cycle of never being content. So thanks Mom and Dad for everything and sorry I was pouty little brat on Christmas day.

I will save you all from more rants about the spiritual loss of Christmas and leave you with this surprisingly sensible joke:

"Why is Christmas just like a day at the office? You do all the work and the fat guy with the suit gets all the credit."