All I Want For Christmas...

Yesterday, the Mister and I started in on the Christmas shopping. Our Christmas list has been winnowed down to a few friends and our children over the years, and shopping isn't nearly the Iron Man Endurance Marathon it used to be. Mostly we have to shop for our children, and as I dislike shopping for the most part, I am extremely grateful to have another brain to help with the endless agonizing over what to get.
We have the girls make out lists to give us an idea of what they would like. When they both still thought Santa was responsible for the Christmas bonanza of gifts, we got some pretty interesting requests; after all, mommy and daddy might not get you a pony, but there was no reason for Santa to hold back.
Thing 1, being the reasonable, easy-going and moderate soul that she is, always asked for the most modest and sensible of Christmas presents, to the point where we would gently encourage her to think a little bigger. One year all she asked for was some gum, some pencil crayons and "those kleenex with the lotion in them". Hardly the stuff that dreams are made of; I don't think there are any Christmas legends or stories about luxury kleenex.
Thing 2 has exactly the opposite approach to Christmas lists; she aims very high, and very low, with the idea that she will wind up with stuff somewhere in the middle. It actually works very well. Over the years she has asked for the following for Christmas:

• Ballroom dancing lessons
• real diamonds
• a cottage
• a chemistry set (yeah, right. She'd have us all in the hospital by Boxing Day.)
• her driver's licence. (She asks for this one every year: "Some day Santa's going to come through for me!")
• puffy dresses and "pritty" clothes
• a jetpack ("For quick getaways.")
• an inflatable palm tree
• flowers from Sobeys
• a live monkey
• a motorcycle (presumably, that's what the driver's licence is for.)
• good books (not bad ones?)
• a unicorn
• her own laptop
• a Wii, an X-Box and a PS3
• a trip to Disney World
• pizza
• a chain saw (she saw her father using one a few summers ago and thought it looked like something she could use.)
• wings
• "perfection" (not quite sure what she meant by that. I'm not sure she does, either.)

Sadly, she will not be getting most of this, yet again. It doesn't seem to bother her, and she is certainly happy with whatever she gets. Just once, it would be nice to be able to get her a cottage, though.

*I have been informed by Thing 1 that "Perfection" is actually a board game. But I like the idea of her asking for some metaphysical ideal instead.