What excites you?

I had a conversation with my brother the other day about excitement.

Do you remember the feeling you had as a child when you knew Christmas (or any holiday that ended with you receiving presents) was around the corner?

How would you describe it?  A hot ball of anticipation with a sprinkle of excitement and a dash of pure joy?

My young nephew's birthday just passed.  I asked him what he wanted, and rattled off a list of things to him (because I generally am the crazy aunt who goes overboard on everything.)  His innocent response to my list of things was, "Yes."

Yes?  To what...which thing, or everything?  My brother and I both broke out in laughter because my nephew was totally confused by us, and completely excited at the possibility of getting everything.  His huge smile and beautiful eyes waited for a response from me.  Like I said, I'm horrible, the only answer I could have was yes.

Talking about my nephew lead my brother and I to talking about what makes us happy like that.

New cars. Renovations on our homes.  Travel.  There are a lot of things that excite us, but not quite in the same way as what we knew my nephew felt.

Recently, one of the authors I absolutely love tweeted me!  Now, this isn't something that I necessarily anticipated, but I'd always hoped one of my favorite artists (authors, singers, musicians, etc.) would say hi.  And, so, when Nalini Singh responded to one of my tweets about one of her books that I was reading, OMG!  Come on.  I relived it for days (and I mean days) afterwards.  I talked about it with friends until I think they were tired of hearing about it.  But, hey, it's not an everyday thing for me.

It's weird the things that excite me, and make me smile.  They are such simple things compared to myself at twenty-one.

Oh the things, I would tell myself, if I could travel back in time :)

What excites you?  What would you tell your younger self?