The gift I would really like this holiday season is peace of mind. I am the husband to a pregnant wife, who is really picky about how everything should be. The issue at hand is that in the condo we are renting, we are preparing to get the baby room ready, yet there is a problem. There is an odd smell coming from that room. It doesn't really bother me, but it extremely bothers my wife. She gets paranoid that it could be something hazardous and perhaps a mold is hiding somewhere. She has right to be concerned I'd say, I mean she's going to be a first time mother, and so it is something very new to us and she doesn't want anything to go wrong. She doesn't want the baby room to have this weird smell.

So we've been working with our landlord to see if we can figure something out with it. The problem is we can't seem to find any particular place the smell is coming from. It's as if it encompasses the entire room. Not only this, but we've been talking lately that this might not be a good place for us to live for the next three years because we're barely making it by as it is as far as our budget goes.

It's just frustrating because I'm going to school full-time, and I do the best that I can to support my small family. And it's just disappointing when things can't go the way we'd like them to. I am aware that this is part of life. We are young, we are married, we are having a child, and we rent, and it will probably be a long time before we ever own a house. So this is what we have to deal with.

The ideal gift that would pamper me this year, would be peace. Peace and quiet. No complaints, no frustration, nothing to get worked up over. Very soon now, we will be joining the "parent" club. And in this club, peace and quiet seem to be hard to find once you become a parent. I don't wish for a new condo with no problems. I don't wish for more money or for any sort of wealth that could buy all the easy fixes in life. I desire peace; peace to deal with life.