All I Want for Christmas

I cannot believe it's almost Christmas. Life is moving on and it's almost 2015. The kids have written their Christmas lists (of course they did it AFTER shopping had occurred) and the adults are avoiding giving gifts to other adults because it just stopped making sense years ago. If I were to write a Christmas list, though, here is what it would look like.

1. To have the right to remain silent. No, I'm not going to jail, but for Pete's sake, I'm tired of talking. I talk all day at work. I talk all evening when I come home. Then I tell my kids a story (which requires speaking) then talk to my husband after the kids go to bed. Sometimes I'll be half asleep and he crawls in bed and starts talking to me. Or my daughter will wobble into the room in the middle of the night or just before my alarm goes off to "chat." I'm. Done. Talking. But just for a little while.

2.  Not to be the complaint repository. A lot of management and parenting and being a spouse or even just a human being requires listening. A lot of it. It's not that I don't like to listen, because I do. But it would be awesome - just awesome, really - if a good 2/3s of what I listened to didn't involve talking someone off a ledge, soothing someone or reassuring them that yes, I would talk to the other party about it (see item 1) or coaching them on how to talk to the other party about an issue.

3. To watch episode 1 of the last season of Sherlock. Guess what I was doing when that was on? I was listening to someone complain. I need closure, dammit. Or opening. Something along those lines.

4. To not have to put anyone's clothing on for them for a solid week. Evelyn, I'm looking at you. I will never get your pants on just right. See item 2.

5. To go to the Grand Canyon. This is really the only thing I want that doesn't hinge entirely on someone else's restraint. But it does cost a buttload of money. I bring in a decent salary, but don't happen to have a buttload of anything but laundry hanging about. At least it's clean. Anyway, I'll get there someday. It probably won't be this year, but who knows? Stranger things have happened.

So, that's it. I could put world peace, improved race relations and elimination of socio-economc barriers to services and job opportunities. And I want those things dearly. Though I'm focusing on my more immediate surroundings for my Christmas list. And trying to avoid sounding like a Miss America contestant.