In a previous post, I wrote that I was not able to open any of the gifts my family gave me until Christmas Eve. This was a ritual we had all through grade school and college and the first few years after I graduated as I kept spending the holidays with my parents.
I was 28 years old when I spent my first Christmas way from all the members of my family. My mother sent me a package in the mail. I had to go to the Post Office to pick it up. When I got it, it was partially opened and damaged. There was a jar of jelly inside that broke and there was jelly all over everything. Mom had wrapped up a gift for me inside that withstood the jelly, but there were other unwrapped items that were not so lucky. I opened up the wrapped gift. It was a dual cassette player/recorder. I called Mom to let her know the package arrived.
"You didn't open it yet, did you? You're supposed to wait for Christmas!"
"Well, yeah, I had to open it. Some of the box had torn and there was jelly all over everything. I had to open the gift to make sure there was nothing wrong with it."
"Well, okay, but you're not supposed to open your gifts before Christmas."
"Right."
After getting off the phone, I realized that without my family around at Christmas, I was under no obligation to wait until the 24th or 25th to open my gifts. So the next few Christmases, I would open my packages as soon as I got them. I felt justified in opening them because if something happened and I died, I wouldn't be able to enjoy that gift.
Mom got mad every year because I would open up her gifts. However, one year, she sent the box so that it would arrive the day after Christmas. I still didn't learn my lesson from that.
So I had to stop this a few years ago when I became romantically involved with the woman I would eventually marry. My Mom actually talked to her and told her to keep me from opening my gifts early. I haven't been able to get the early Christmas since.
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