My wife asked me a silly question a few weeks ago. A question that bothered me. A question that made me wonder if she had spent the day nipping at the cooking sherry. She asked me what I wanted for Christmas.

I had to look at the calendar to see if I had pulled a Rip van Winkle and slept through all of November. We hadn’t even started to think about Thanksgiving and she wanted me to decide what I wanted for Christmas.

What I really want for Christmas is for people to wait until after Thanksgiving to talk about Christmas presents.

I love getting presents. I just don’t like the pressure of coming up with a list before college football teams start playing bowl games.

We talked about this when Maria’s mother and sister came to visit. I was the only one advocating waiting until after Thanksgiving to start shopping.

When I said I loved to shop on Christmas Eve, you would have thought I had suggested we all go on a cross-country crime spree. I think someone gasped audibly.

I do love to shop at the last minute though. I generally have a good idea of what I want and get in and out of stores in record time.

And the clerks on Christmas Eve couldn’t be nicer. They know you have a goal in mind. No chit chat. No goofing off. That’s the way to shop, and they appreciate it.

Maria’s side of the family has a different idea. Not only do they like to start shopping before Thanksgiving, they like to finish shopping before we all dig into our turkey dinner.

Yes, these people are Americans. I don’t understand it either.

My sister-in-law said she shops before Thanksgiving because the stores are “picked clean” once Black Friday comes. I had no idea that the shelves turned bare once December came.

That still won’t get me to change my shopping habits. I try to take one holiday at a time. I need to get through Thanksgiving before I can even think of Christmas.

My side of the family will thankfully resume a family tradition and pick names for presents at Thanksgiving. We had always done this when I was growing up, but we usually moved the picking to a date when we all got together after we all grew up.

I won’t be there since we spend Thanksgiving at my mother-in-law’s (where everyone except me will be done their shopping apparently), but I’m glad the tradition has returned.

Some of my siblings still want everyone to turn in lists of what they want before picking names so the impatient can start shopping as soon as possible.

I also have a problem with Black Friday shopping, but I’ll have to take what I can get. I just hope I can find a way to delay the whole process to the final week before Christmas on year.

I know I can make them all see how much fun last-minute shopping can be. That’s the best present I could ever give.