There's something wrong with me. I know it. I can pretend otherwise but I just don't get excited about Christmas anymore. And the reason? I'm selfish. I like getting stuff.

I am not really big on personal consumption. I'm notoriously cheap. And thanks to my wife, we (as in she and I) tend to be quite generous on gift giving. And why not? We're blessed to be able to afford to give to our family and friends.

But I like getting presents. Not just any old presents, but presents that have thought put into them. I don't care if they cost nothing or cost a lot, I like presents that show that the person gave some thought to it.

For instance, a friend of mine at work gave me a gourmet hot chocolate kit. I love hot chocolate and that was really thoughtful. But that's the exception rather than the rule.

Do you know what I usually get? Gift cards to Best Buy, Amazon, or other places. I get lots of gift cards. Not to be ungrateful but gift cards are the worst present of all for me. I'd rather just get a card with a hand written note than a gift card.

When I say that I don't want gift cards since they're essentially just money transfers – except more restrictive – the response I get is "Well I don't know what to get you, you could just buy anything you want anyway." Which makes me wonder why they got me a gift card then. I guess what I'm looking for is thought. I guess I have it easy when it comes to presents, I can buy people nice things because I can afford it. It's easy to just buy something expensive because you know they'll probably like it. But a book that I didn't think of or some little gadget that I didn't know about or some little item that just shows that some thought was put into the gift is what I'm looking for.

But I suppose it doesn't matter, Christmas is really mostly for the kids anyway. Bah humbug. J