The Unironic Joy of Socks and Underwear

As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

What is a “boring” item you would unironically like to receive as a present?

Growing up in my family, it seems like The Old Man, Guillaume, and I would always get at least one clothing box packed with socks and underwear for Christmas.

In fact, as we got older, it became a little bit of an inside joke. Really this was more between The Old Man, and me, as Guillaume never really had much of a sense of humor. Every year, either The Old Man or I would yell out “Socks and underwear!“ as we opened them up. Eventually, we would start to recognize that they were wrapped in similarly shaped boxes. The Old Man would say something to me like, “Rob, open this one now and I’ll open this other package,” knowing full well that he had gotten us both socks and underwear.

It’s not that I hate buying socks and underwear. I’m certainly not embarrassed to go buy them or anything. The truth is, doing so is kind of irritating. As I type this now I’m thinking to myself that I am kind of in need for some more socks and underwear. I’ll probably just end up treating myself to some for Christmas this year, as I’m now assuming the Christmas role previously held by The Old Man.

Yes, socks and underwear are a mind- numbingly boring gifts that I unironically look forward to getting every Christmas. They are sensible, they are useful, and I need to replace mine pretty frequently; especially my socks, given the way I like to traipse around the house without shoes.

Unfortunately, that is one habit that kid 2 has picked up from me. In fact, I’ll see him run out the door when he’s with me – not barefoot, not wearing shoes, but just wearing socks. I’ll usually have to remind him, “Either take off your socks or go put on some shoes!“ to that end, I’ve carried on the socks and underwear tradition with Kid 1 and Kid 2. Every year, one of us still heals out “Socks and Underwear”. Indeed, the son becomes the father and the father becomes the son.

As a child, getting socks and underwear for Christmas was annoying, at best. I didn’t appreciate them as a child. In fact, I was so fortunate as a kid that when I saw them, I thought, That’s one less box some toys could be in… I had no idea how fortunate I was. And still am.

Meanwhile

Today is November 26, we are just under one month from Christmas. This is also the first official day of my Thanksgiving break. I’ll be picking kid two up later this evening, and he’ll be staying with me for the entire weekend.

I just found out tonight that Guillaume and his wife are not having Thanksgiving dinner until Friday. I guess it’s okay; it’s not the end of the world. In fact, I hope it gives kid 2 and I the opportunity to cross something off of my bucket list: attending Detroit’s Thanksgiving day parade in person.

Beyond that, Phred got Kid 2 and I tickets to the Michigan State football game that’s being held at Ford Field on Saturday. I got tickets for Veronica and Spicoli as well, but it sounds like they have other plans. At any rate, Kid 2 and I will have fun stuff to do every day of this holiday weekend.

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