If you celebrate, I hope you had yourself a merry little Christmas this year. Despite the usual suspects -- unexpected illness, a deeply coveted toy which turned out to be broken right out of the box (argh!) -- I think my children and nephews experienced the kind of joy that parents always wish for their kids to experience. It was a pretty magical day, all around.

Now, I'm not big on "stuff" and my kids received what I'm sure many would consider a pitiful haul. But I do believe that occasionally a child should get to experience the unadulterated wonder of getting a fabulous present. Who doesn't like getting a great gift?

When all was said and done, I was able to settle down with my Bloglines account and read many similar accounts of family Christmases that played out with ups and downs, but were more or less descriptions of kids having a holiday to remember. Was it perfect? In most cases, no. But happy memories are being made, nonetheless.

When I'm tempted to feel grumpy over the things that weren't "just so," it's easy enough to play the "someone always has it worse" game, unfortunately. So if you're moping a bit over your kids not getting the perfect experience (for whatever reason), I refer you to the following:

Structured Ramblings reports on the South Brunswick children who robbed a neighbor's home of presents. Maybe this isn't an uncommon scenario, but in this case? The culprits were just five and nine:

Damn, they’re getting younger every day. What kind of home do these kids live in that such a thing would even enter the mind of a 9 year old?

And in the not-what-you-expected files, there were two stories of woe this year.

First, geeksugar covers the PlayStation 3 box that contained a phone book:

According to Engadget, the PS3 wasn't purchased on eBay or second-hand, but rather at the local EB Games, which makes this story even more shocking. The parents are just as stunned as their son and are trying to track down their PS3 as we speak. Talk about the worst Christmas ever!

Second, Amy S.F. Lutz at Strollerderby covered the case of the Wal-Mart MP3 player that came preloaded with porn:

Imagine: you're a ten-year-old girl on Christmas morning, and you've just found the mp3 video player you begged Santa for right there under the tree. You eagerly rip it open, turn it on - and find it already loaded with porn, violent war movies and drug anthems.

Are you shocked? Appalled? Traumatized for life? The parents of a Tennessee girl certainly hope so. They refused an offer from Wal-Mart, where the player was purchased, to replace it. Instead, they bought their daughter a new one and held on to the first one. That can only mean one thing: one more case for Wal-Mart's already beleaguered legal team.

Suddenly your Christmas is looking a lot more perfect, no?

Contributing Editor Mir also blogs about issues parental and otherwise at Woulda Coulda Shoulda and Cornered Office, as well as sharing the joys of mindful retail therapy at Want Not.