.... feeling old and very cranky here...

In my world, if you're over 8 years old, you wait until someone asks before you tell them what you want for Christmas.

If by chance, they don't ask, and you feel the need to contact them to tell them what you want anyway, you include some pleasantries, and ask them what they want for Christmas too.

If you never ask what someone wants for Christmas, you don't get to gripe about how hard it is to buy presents for them.

If you do ask, you don't get to gripe then either, especially not about how impossible it is to find that single object they wanted. It was a wish, not an order.

In fact you don't EVER get to gripe about how impossible it is to buy presents for someone, because it pretty much negates the entire point of gift-giving.

Ok, people, tell me how I'm just being tense and cranky here. No wonder I would rather just disappear to the tropics every December and magically reappear once it's all over.