Go Big or Go Home

Some of you are coming up with magnificently fun Christmas wishes.  Houses and cooks --- you all deserve those things and more.

My experience with Christmas has always been a bit different from others'.  My mother made all my clothes --- ALL --- which meant that I got new things to wear year 'round.  Clothes weren't "special," if you know what I mean.  All my friends would get so excited about outfits they got at Christmas, but I never asked for clothes.  Didn't have to.  So it was toys and games and bikes and dolls and records and stuffed animals.  Thinking of Christmas as utilitarian blunts the magic.

Does that sound bratty and snotty and spoiled?  It's just how I've always thought about and experienced this time of year.

This item from my list does qualify as utilitarian, I realize, but it also speaks to a fascination I've had with an American city for many years.

I'd like a house in Albuquerque.  It wouldn't have to be this Google search one, though this one is very nice.