How to “con” your parents into “giving” you an early Christmas present…of books
Oh yes, he did it! Or, better yet, I did it! I think I inherited a bit of my late grandmother’s spirit over these past few months, thanks to one “epic” con.
For me, and I’m sure for many of you, Christmas is full of nostalgia and it hits me like a freight train every year. Flashbacks to when I was young, and the “Holiday Tradition” consisted of a visit to my great-grandparents’ home. It was nothing more than a five-room trailer and, somehow, about sixty of us fit in the living room and kitchen.
Squeezed like sardines, we were, but they’re memories I’ll cherish forever. Fast-forward to 1998, and my great-grandfather passed in August of that year. So we all shifted gears in tiny Toronto, Ohio, and set up shop in the mill row, where my great-uncle lived at the time.
Those Christmas Eve nights may have held some of the fondest memories. Mainly because we had a blast heading into my cousin’s room and playing his Nintendo 64 for about five hours straight between massive helpings of Christmas cookies. This was back when I still ate them.
And it was during that era, which lasted from 1998 through 2019, when the rather deviant teenage TC Marti emerged. I’d say he officially burst onto the scene in 2004. You know, the type that started snooping around his parents’ house for the stash of gifts he’d receive on the 25th.
Alright, now let’s fast-forward to 2024, a time of change and facing fears in the way of massive upheaval. It’d been a year of triumph and loss, with the passing of my grandmother this past September, which ended another era. I don’t think a day passes that I don’t think of what I’ve dubbed the longest week, which lasted from September 1st through September 5th.
Mainly, I’ve flashed back to her funeral service, a vivid memory for obvious reasons, but it was also the first I’d ever attended in my life. Yeah, thanks to a series of (rather) fortunate and unfortunate events since 2017, it took until I was roughly 33-and-a-half years old before I’d experienced one.
But, something the pastor said jumped out at me. Which is weird, because I should’ve known it was coming.
My grandmother was a rather cunning human being
See, he told the story about how my grandfather (still living) refused to play cards and board games if my grandmother was playing. The reason? Oh, she liked to cheat to gain an advantage, and it was a trait she passed on to Yours Truly.
Yeah, the Sorting Hat put me in Ravenclaw over at what I think is now called HarryPotter.Com, but I’ve often wondered how I never made it into Slytherin, my favorite House. For the record, I love Ravenclaw, but I’ve been attracted to the Emerald and Silver since I first picked up a Harry Potter book.
Then again, my grandmother would cheat in any game but would do so in a clever way, so I guess she’d have been something in between a Slytherin and Ravenclaw. I followed in that endeavor, and considering my reputation of being rather sneaky myself to this day (the ‘T’ in my name does stand for Tod, which means ‘fox’ in case you’re wondering), I’m often left to ask myself what else did she do to gain an advantage?
Maybe she’ll return as a Force Ghost someday and teach me the ways, right? But, considering my own deviance to this day, I have a general idea. And this ties into the whole ‘getting books for Christmas’ from Mom and Dad, but not waiting until December 25th to enjoy one of them.
Yep, I’m teaching you all how to show some gamesmanship here, and to do it well.
The Strategy
This past October, my brother married his girlfriend/fiancée of four years, and the day before the wedding made for rather good timing to send my mother an email of the good old Christmas list. Hey, don’t judge the fact that I’ll be 34 in April and am still sending full lists—every year I insist I don’t want (or need) anything, but if that happened, I’d probably end up with $1,000 worth of random items.
So, after they prod me, my brother, and who is now my brother’s wife starting in about July, the three of us relent and say, “You know what, screw it. If you want to treat us all like overgrown children, then that’s your decision, not ours.”
Hence came a list of paperback books worth $200, to which my mother replied, “That’s it?” Yeah, for real…
Anyway, after she talked me into letting her invest in a blender and, sigh, I’m sure a few more random items for me, I was sure she’d tell me to handle part of that 2025 TBR list and order it myself. So, I did just that and had it delivered to my place because, you know, I also had to buy for them so I could even the score.
Yeah, a couple of fandom collectibles or whatever catches my attention, and we’d be square. But, don’t think for a single second I wasn’t making sure I’d ‘steal’ a book when the package arrived at my door. You know, so I could ‘take out’ any of my parents’ gifts that also arrived in the same package.
And Bingo! What arrived were quite a few works that I’ll be sharing with you because they tie in well with this blog, including the Resistance Series by Tracy Lawson, Beyond by Kate L. Mary, and the Gateway Trilogy by E.E. Holmes. Yup, that last one is a good old paranormal occult fantasy.
Getting a head start on my fiction 2025 TBR list
Of course, I’ll be starting with the latter, entitled Spirit Legacy. March 3rd, 2025 would have been my grandmother’s 83rd birthday. And I’m also in the stages of launching a book called Cursed Mage, which Spirit Legacy heavily influenced.
So, this Christmas, I thought to myself, why not start with Spirit Legacy, Book I in the Gateway Trilogy? Why not read it, give it a review, and remind myself why it’s, to this day, one of my favorite books outside of anything not named Harry Potter.
It’s a work I’ve read via Kindle several times and listened to on Audible several more times. But, I’ve never read it in paperback, so this is, in a way, a new endeavor.
Anyway, if you’re feeling rather deviant this time of the year and you’d like to get a present or two (in the form of books) early from your family if the opportunity presents itself, you make the order for them, get it delivered to your home, and bam! You got your early Christmas present. Just make sure they don’t remember everything they ordered for you. Or, better yet, they told you to order for yourself. Ha!