waiting on Christmas

I cannot believe that it is Christmas eve already! I will start by confessing that Christmas is not up there as one of my favorite holidays. There is such a huge build-up and let-down over it. Even if I do try to keep it simple and focus on the true meaning of Christmas, it always seems to leave me broke and tired. There are a few things I have learned now that I am the adult in charge of Christmas at my house:
1) You will see THE BIG PRESENT that your kid wants every time they are with you, but the one time that you have a chance to run out and get it on your own, it will not be there.
2) Desperate times call for desperate measures: when I realized that THE BIG PRESENT was not to be found in stores two days before Christmas, I paid 40 bucks to have it overnighted, 40 bucks! I was desperate, which leads me to number 3...
3) Just because you pay 40 bucks to "overnight" something does not mean it will actually arrive the next day. In my case, it actually meant at least 5 days later.
4) The hobby shop is actually a pretty cool place to find Christmas presents, a parking spot up front and no line at the cash register, SCORE!
5) Waiting for your kid to fall asleep is virtually impossible without actually doing so yourself.
6) Last but not least I learned that you should buy a little something for yourself too, or your child will tell you that you must have yelled at them too much this year or made them do too many chores, and that is why Santa didn't bring you anything.
Merry Christmas!