Ask me again in January

J : "So what do you want for Christmas?"
Me : Long pause.

I don't know if this only happens to me. Everytime I go shopping (all throughout the year), I see lots of stuff that I would like to get for Christmas. But when it comes to being asked the actual question, I can't find the answer. It's almost like finding lots of clothes to buy on normal shopping sprees, but finding absolutely nothing during a megasale.

I go to the extend of writing down the items I like, or even bookmarking the pages from online. Somehow, the list gets lost.

Maybe when our minds are at its most relaxed (eg while shopping) we have lower expectations, so everything we see looks good. But when faced with the bombshell of a question like What do you really want? And you can only have one final answer, our minds go into hibernation mode due to the stress that it's going through, processing all the things we do want for Christmas.

I can't make a Top Ten list. A Top Fifty list maybe. There're too many things I want. It's too stressful 'laying off' all the other stuff so that the best 10 will have a better chance of making it. It's even worse when there's a budget. "$200. Go and decide, then tell us where to get it" says my mum. In the end I'll just buckle from all the pressure and ask for something really useless.

I bet next year, I'm gonna see something I really really want, and go "Damn! I should have asked for this last Christmas."