This one will be about gifts. It is the season for giving, is it not?
Thinking back to all the Christmas gifts I've been given over the years...
Best gift ever: NBA Live '99 --computer game
From: My grandma, Madeline Crosley. Her last Christmas before passing in February the following year. It was the first basketball video game I actually owned personally. Loved that game--I'll never forget it because of who it came from.
Worst gift ever: Tube socks
From: I have no earthly idea. Some distant relative, I imagine--I was a little kid. What little kid ever wants tube socks? Why do people do this? Ironically, as I near 25, I could actually use a new pair of socks or 2--just not ones like that.
2009 Wish List:
1. Anything Cubs--Ahem, tickets? Just kidding (no I'm not).
...there is a black Cubs shirt at Champs Sports that I would love. They used to have a neat white one, too, at one point. I own 4 blues and 1 grey, but no other colors.
...there are at least 6 new Cubs hats at Lids in Towne East in Wichita that I don't have. Not to mention tons of neatly-colored hats, shirts and other Cubs nonsense online. Just saying.
2. Nintendo Wii. Very unrealistic (money constraints for pretty much everyone I know) and not the best usage of my time, but I'd love one, nonetheless.
3. A foxy new girlfriend. Or at least a New Year's date? Suggestions? Bah.
*Derrick pauses for 2:22 and breaks into a Joe Nichols song* --
"What's a guy gotta do to get a girl in this town?...don't wanna be alone when the sun goes down...just a sweet little somethin' to put my arms around...what's a guy gotta do to get a girl in this town? ...well, ask anybody, I'm a pretty good guy..."
Yikes. Sorry you had to witness that--I'm back now...where was I? Oh yes...
On to a couple random Christmas memories:
1995: Move into new house (out of trailer). With TV on the floor and most belongings still in boxes, we watch the beloved Kansas Jayhawks defeat UCLA 51-30 in Aloha Bowl...Then, with no food worth eating and exhausted from moving--we eat "Christmas dinner" at a gas station in Kingman, KS. Just my mom and us three boys. An oddly cohesive occasion.
2002: House fire, 2 AM--Christmas Eve. Forced to move into a duplex in town for the last 5 months of my Senior year of High School. Weird stuff, watching your house almost burn down mere hours before Christmas.
SO...here's what I want: If you are reading this, take a second to tell me at least one--or more of the following:
1. What's on your Christmas wish list this year?
2. Best gift you've ever gotten?
3. Worst gift you've ever gotten?
4. Good Christmas memory?
5. Bad Christmas memory?
6. Favorite thing about the holiday season?
7. Least favorite thing about the holidays?
You mustn't answer them all...Just share some Christmas-y thoughts. Ready, go.
I'll try and make sure to write again before then, but I'm in holiday mode already.
Early or not...Merry Christmas, y'all.
Do the right thing,
Derrick
