The night before

So it comes to Christmas Eve, and I've only just wrapped presents. Ahem. Now, to be fair (or rather, just to give myself an excuse) this isn't simply because of gross disorganisation but because I don't like wrapping presents too long before the 25th, and usually wait until the 22nd or 23rd, somewhere around then. However, I was out both yesterday and Monday, and so the presents had to wait.

Actually, while we're on the subject, I should confess that I did some last-minute shopping in Oxford Street on Monday - again, I'd like to claim that this wasn't my fault but was in fact due to my brother's scatterbrain since, despite copious attempts at nagging, he only told me what he wanted on Sunday night (I believe the threat: "Okay, tell me now what you want, or you're not getting anything," was involved somewhere).

(Was that a good enough excuse? Nah, didn't think so. Just put it down to disorganisation, then.)

See, we do this in our house. We are a Family of the Christmas Lists, which I think evolved from seeing various things throughout the year that we'd like, and being told that we could ask for them for Christmas, and mutated into, "You can't possibly expect me to buy you anything until I know what you want, can you?"

On the one hand, it definitely makes shopping easier, and generally guarantees that you'll get something that you particularly wanted. However, it is nice to get surprise presents, when they work. And we generally manage to sneak in one or two little surprise present in any case, so it does tend to work out well.

Just one thing - it'd be nice if, having instigated the whole thing, my parents could actually produce some kind of list (even with just one thing on it!) so that my brother and I didn't have to do the whole wandering-around-aimlessly-trying-to-let-inspiration-strike.

Another thing that's influenced by the Christmas lists is that it completely discourages rummaging around at the foot of the tree and trying to guess your presents - after all, if you're actually able to specifically identify a load of them it takes all the fun out, doesn't it?