Isn’t it amazing how our priorities seem to change as we get older? The older I get, the less I seem to want — especially at Christmas. I truly do not want any gifts. I think it may have something to do with trying to find a place to keep the thoughtful gift.

Of course, that wasn’t the case when I was younger.

When I was young person and teenager, Christmas was a huge deal to my two brothers and I. The three of us knew why we celebrated Christmas, but also couldn’t wait until Christmas morning to rip open those gift-wrapped packages.

I have some awesome memories as a child of coaxing my “baby” brother out of bed in the middle of the night to “Go see if Santa came.” It was a ploy my younger brother and I used on our parents because we figured he was the youngest and cutest of their three children and they wouldn’t be quite as upset being awoken at 3 in the morning.

I got my fair share of “Evel Knievel Stunt Cycles,” “Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Robots,” and “Electric Football” games as a kid, but one of my favorite gifts was the year I received my very own portable black and white TV to put in my room. I thought I had finally hit adulthood at 12 years of age.

I also recall some very lean years for my family when we lived for a brief time in Merigold, Mississippi. My family wasn’t broke, but there wasn’t a lot of money for Christmas gifts that year. 

My Uncle Bo, my Dad’s half-brother who never married and never had any children of his own, treated me and my two brothers as if we were his own kids and made sure we had a “good” Christmas. That year, he bought the three of us cowboy boots that I honestly don’t think we took off our feet for days.

I eventually got older and sleeping on Christmas morning became more of a priority as a teenager than it did a decade earlier. But my Dad had pay back on his mind for all those groggy Christmas mornings.

He decided he would come into our rooms and wake us up at 3 a.m. on Christmas and would whisper to us “Rob. Come see if Santa came.” And when we moved out of the house, he would call us on the phone at 3 in the morning to ask us if Santa came.

So I guess what I want for this Christmas I have already received — memories of my family.

I’m fortunate that the gift I really want will be Christmas Eve when my brothers and I and our families get to join together and be with both of our parents for another Christmas. That’s really all I want.

Time has become a precious commodity to me as I’ve gotten older and spending time with the people who matter most to me is a true gift.

Merry Christmas.

Rob Sigler is editor of The Vicksburg Post. You may reach him at rob.sigler@vicksburgpost.com.