surprise!

 My nephews seem really iffy on the whole concept of presents being a surprise.  They spend copious amounts of time prior to Christmas and birthdays trying to figure out what they're presents are.  They say things like "It could be....[ x ]", and I feel compelled to remind them it could be ANYTHING(!), as far as they know, because they DON'T KNOW what it is!  I highly doubt the oldest one, now 8, even knows of everything it COULD be.  Heck, I don't know what their presents COULD be.  Not exhaustively anyway.  If I were actively shopping for their Christmas and birthday gifts, I'd still be unaware of a possible gift, meanwhile they themselves might be pining for something that even they explained it to me, with their limited ability to articulate, I might be like "Huh?  Are you sure you didn't dream this....?"  (I know this because they've tried doing that and that's exactly how it goes sometimes)

I myself at times have wondered not so much what a surprise really is, but more so why surprises are important.
I think with Christmas gifts, the gift is a surprise because, if you're giving it to the recipient in honor of what Christ has accomplished during his stay on earth, it's important to distinguish it from other gifts by giving in on the day that Christians have decided upon as Christmas.  The fact that we don't know what day Jesus was in fact born is really irrelevent and it's honestly perplexing why people feel the need to point that out.
And as for birthday gifts, I guess if you love somebody enough, setting aside a special day just for them is importand and what better day than the day that started it all?  For me, it's more tradition.  If nobody I knew had been born, it would be because God decreed or at least allowed that to be the case (there is indeed a distinct difference between a decree and a permitting and I wish Christians would quit using the terms interchangeably).  A birthday celebration, therefore, in my imaginary perfect world, is more of an honoring of God's infinitely wise providence, as unfathomable and confounding as it often is.  There is an element of care to it as well.  In the case of the adults I know, seems like they're so heavenly minded, getting them a gift is like dropping a penny in a well.  For children, ie my nephews, they get so excited by the bling and blang, it's fun to partake in by buying them gifts.  For me, even though I can get caught up in the same kind of thing, I recognize that everything comes with a price tag and, with a few exceptions, it's much bigger than the amount of enjoyment I am able to get out of it.  If I had enough income to buy whatever I wanted without taking a huge pause just after buying a tiny sliver of it, it'd be a different story but nobody I know has that kind of money, including myself.  I still do like to buy stuff, but I'm hoping, given my budget and everything, hopefully I'll be more consistently cognizant of the fact that I really would be better off just giving my money to charity than spending it on cool stuff....