The Christmas season has officially begun.

And it began the same way it does every year. The real official start I mean. You know what I'm talking about.

The start where a normally sane person all of a sudden has this overwhelming compulsion to go shopping at 5am. Sometimes this compulsion is so strong, that they will go to their garage, storage closest or what have you, and dig out their sleeping bag. So they can spend the night outside their store of choice. Because if they don't get that $300 laptop for their 10 year old, well, they can forget about their child ever speaking to them again.

Or so the Best Buy commercial told me.

Don't get me wrong, Best Buy is one of my favorite places on earth. They cater to me very well.....'cause I'm a nerd of the highest order, and Best Buy loves nerds..

Those fucking commercials though.....seriously. It's not like it's just them. I guess it is just unavoidable.

I am not that old, but man, are things different now....

I remember when Christmas came around some of the things I used to look forward to were all the Christmas specials that were always on year after year. You know, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "Frosty The Snowman", "Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer", you get the point.

That, and what cool toys were coming out. That was also WAY different than now. I think the main difference is when I was younger, the toys that were around had more of a tendency to cater to our childhood. That, unfortunately, no longer seems to be the case. Now it tends to lean more towards growing today's children up too fast. I still haven't quite figured out how that happened.

Now when the X-mas commercials start the day after Thanksgiving, you see an amazing range of gift ideas you may have never thought of yourself, but seem pretty important all of a sudden...

Like....

You know, your husband/wife would love you just a little more if you bought them that new Lexus/Cadillac/(insert car name here) instead of a sweater like last year....

Or....

Your wife would really much have that $5000 diamond this Christmas, much more than the new refrigerator with the TV in it (she does not care about that) that you were going to buy for her.....hell, dude, you might even get laid....

Better yet....

If you buy your 11 year old son/daughter that $400 cell phone that they just have to own or they may just drop dead from embarassment for being the only 11 year old who doesn't have one, you may be lucky enough to be one of the few parents not referred to as an ASSHOLE....

Isn't Christmas a beautiful thing?