My boys are getting older, but that doesn’t mean they’re getting less excited about Christmas. About the only difference is the price of their gifts. We used to be able to get by with spending a couple hundred bucks on a bunch of stuff to cram underneath the tree – and even then, the boys seemed happier playing with the boxes the toys came in than the toys themselves.
Gifts have gotten more expensive with a couple of high-school boys in the house. The oldest bought himself a pickup over the summer, so now the youngest thinks he should get a Ram 2500 for Christmas.
Not a new one, he assures me. He’d be happy with a 2013 or 2014, he tells me. I think he greatly overestimates what an outdoors show radio host makes. The kid’s not even old enough to drive, so I pointed that out to him. He informed me that it would give him plenty of time to drive around the property so that when he is old enough to drive, he’ll be a safer driver.
He changed his tune after we took an afternoon to go hunt pheasants last weekend, though. Now he said he can wait on the truck, but he says he needs a new Browning Citori Sporting Clays 12 gauge over-and-under. For crying out loud, I’D love to have one of those. I hate to break it to the kid, but there’s no way in heck Santa’s leaving one of those under the tree, and if he does, I’m claiming it.
All of Logan’s begging for a shotgun for Christmas got me thinking about my own wish list. I’d love a new shotgun myself, or an elk rifle. But what I really need, since shedding nearly a hundred pounds a few years ago, is a new set of cold-weather camo gear – and preferably all in one camo pattern.
But after spending last year in North Dakota, 600 miles away from my family, I’ll be content this year just being with them. And since I know that’s what I’ll be getting for Christmas this year, I’ve had no trouble getting to sleep this Christmas season, for once.
