Christmas.

[Roger Kettle]

I used to love Christmas. There was nothing like the magic of Christmas Eve. I'd creep downstairs around midnight and leave a half-drunk glass of milk and some half-eaten mince pies on the kitchen table. I'd even throw some gnawed carrots on the floor. Last year, when my wife found out this was me, she was furious.
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Actually, it's kind of sad when the kids grow up. Instead of being woken up at 6 a.m. on Christmas morning by wide-eyed mini-maniacs, I now have to go to their rooms at 11 a.m. and ask if there's any chance of them joining us downstairs.
Sadly, I no longer visit toyshops. I go to places that sell C.Ds and D.V.Ds and I make a fool of myself by asking for something "my son heard on the wireless". Ten years ago, I would buy my daughter some clothes for her Barbie Doll. Today, she wants clothes for herself that use less material.
I gently weep. Merry Christmas.

[Malky McG]

Yes, I sympathise. I have a 25 year-old who lives in Bristol, and who stopped being fun many years ago, but my two youngest are now in the expensive and ungrateful phase. I do hanker after the days when a bike would do 'em, and when it was fun to anticipate their joy.

Also, here in the sub tropics there's no snow. Odd to hear the Christmas jingles on the radio, many of them mentioning  snow, cold and frost, whilst the sun is splitting the trees outside.

[colcool]

Know the feeling well.  Out in the sun myself, but going to scoot up one of the local mountains so that we can have a snowball fight with the kids.   

Kids are beginning to enter that "What the hell is that band?" stage of life, but have cheated and gotten the elder one a DVD that she has been chuntering on about for 4 months, so I know that she will like that!