HEADS UP FOR CHRISTMAS--ACTUALLY NEW YEARS!

When I was growing up we had something called Mother Goose. Mother Goose came on New Year's Eve. She hid presents somewhere in the house. Maybe under the desk or behind the drapes in the living room. No more wrapping, Mom was sick of wrapping, so whatever we got was just put out.

Mother Goose came because Mom would start finding things she had bought for Christmas that she had forgotten about--she was one of the original bargain shoppers and started shopping for next year's Christmas on December 26th.

We never had the let down that you sometimes hear about after Christmas. We knew something good was coming on New Year's day. Now, you may think, what greedy children. I hope you won't. We had a joyful life, enough of the basics and some extras. One year Mom and Uncle Tom stood at the window and shook their heads in dismay. The toys were discarded on the living room floor while Jim--my cousin--and I were having a marvelous time, playing in the snow with two metal coat hangers we had bent into the shape of clumsy airplanes.

"We might as well have saved a lot of time and money," Mom said. "We could have given them some cardboard boxes, coat hangers, a roll of tape and called it good."

I continued the tradition of Mother Goose for my children. One year they got nothing but dart guns but we had dart gun wars all New Year's day and it started a tradition I will post maybe later this week.

Mother Goose is a good thing. A tradition worth keeping.

PS If you ever do buy dart guns for the kids but a few extras. Some always break and then there's a sad player on the sidelines.