{"id":2959,"date":"2021-11-28T13:17:39","date_gmt":"2021-11-28T20:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=2959"},"modified":"2021-11-28T13:17:39","modified_gmt":"2021-11-28T20:17:39","slug":"i-want-toys-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=2959","title":{"rendered":"I Want Toys for Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/mb_color_bestyearsblog-150x150121.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2328\" src=\"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/mb_color_bestyearsblog-150x150121.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>I want toys for Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>Can\u2019t remember saying that since, hmm, maybe 1959.<\/p>\n<p>Growing up in the Bellah family, we kids had two categories of gifts:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Toys<\/li>\n<li>Everything else<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>\u201cEverything else\u201d included books, stocking stuffer and school stuff, but mostly it meant clothes\u2014the multicolored socks from Aunt Fern, the sweaters knitted by our Granna.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything else\u201d came mostly from family. Santa never gave us clothes.<\/p>\n<p>Santa always brought toys. And when you\u2019re six, or eight or ten, it\u2019s toys you want. Always.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why this year is different for me. In my adult life, I\u2019ve been pretty content with a parka from the North Face or a fleece vest from L.L. Bean.<\/p>\n<p>But this year?<\/p>\n<p>I want a stand-up paddleboard. Haven\u2019t learned how to ride one yet, but they look cool. And I want one.<\/p>\n<p>And I want an ebicycle. Because I love to bike, and, at my age, something that will take me farther and faster (and, with pedal assist, also give a good workout) is also cool.<\/p>\n<p>So, Santa, if you\u2019re reading this, don\u2019t even think about clothes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I want toys for Christmas. Can\u2019t remember saying that since, hmm, maybe 1959. Growing up in the Bellah family, we kids had two categories of gifts: Toys Everything else \u201cEverything else\u201d included books, stocking stuffer and school stuff, but mostly it meant clothes\u2014the multicolored socks from Aunt Fern, the sweaters knitted by our Granna. \u201cEverything [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2960,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959\/revisions\/2960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}