X Minus 6

"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

"It's so dreadful to be poor!" sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

"I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all," added little Amy, with an injured sniff.*

"We've got Father and Mother and each other," said Beth contentedly, from her corner.

And that's pretty much all I've got too, since Amazon lost my niece's Clairol Hair Gems! (Not that they were actually going to tell me, I had to find their customer service number on some guy's blog to pin them down.) Of course, now they're sold out. As is Target, as is JC Penney. I'm forced to buy it from Home Shopping Network for twice the price!

Sigh of disgust.

I should have shopped local.

Don't tell Kingsolver.

Anyway, let's discuss what *I* would get for Christmas, if my honey had lots of money, and if I cared about such material things...

1) A week in a Parisian apartment. We would take the girls, of course, because I think the Parisians love children. (Snort.) Plus, I don't believe even Santa Claus could find us a babysitter... Ha! Seriously. I think they'd enjoy the parks. The puppets. The French fries. The Hall of Mirrors at Versailles! Oh, the millions of Margarets! Plus, Lucy is under the impression -- because her father told her so -- that we might actually find her friend Madeline there.

2) An extra-long LL Bean toboggan! We could actually afford this, but $200 seems like a lot to spend for 15 minutes of winter fun. (That's all my little Lu will tolerate.) Interestingly, my mother broke her leg on a toboggan, back when I was about Lucy's age. She was attempting to keep me from falling off the board -- but, when she stuck out her leg to catch me, it got run over.


3) This table.
It delights me.

*Frankly, Little Women, which I just reread for a book club, wasn't nearly as good as I remember. (Can you say that about an American classic? Hee.)