|
Raise your hand if you and your family got too much for Christmas. Is your hand raised? Mine is. I think most of America would have to raise their hands if asked that question. This is what my living room looked like on Christmas Eve...
All of that for a family of four, plus one Indiana Mimi....oh and a few went to Debbles107 and her crew. But still....it's ridiculous, isn't it? Well, you should have seen our stockings! My mom, who just turned 60 on Christmas Day, likes to reminisce about Christmases growing up in her family through the 1950s, and we all love to hear her stories. She's told us about the Christmas that she and her brother were so excited to get toothbrushes. In their stockings they were always delighted to find an apple, an orange and some hard candy. One Christmas Indiana Mimi wasn't even interested in presents because her dog Blackie was missing. (He came back on Christmas morning, by the way.) I also love to go back even further in history and hear about my grandfather receiving his best Christmas present ever: an old broomstick, which he pretended was a horse. When you hear stories like this, it makes the electric drums or the iPod you just ripped into seem a little indulgent, perhaps. I think I've decided that I'm not good at receiving gifts. I love to buy and give gifts, and I think.....unless my family has been faking it all these years....that I'm pretty good at it. But receiving gifts is awkward for me. I'm not good at faking pleasure. Sometimes even my genuine pleasure over something seems phony...to me anyway. I wonder if I was grateful enough...or too much. This year, however, I was blessed to receive some great gifts that I was very thankful for, and since we're on the topic, I thought I'd share them with you. This is one thing I got from Annaleigh:
Of course, it's beautiful. She did a great job on it. I love the fact that she took the time and effort to design and make a key chain just for me, but my favorite part is that she, on her own with no bribery involved, spelled out "Best Mom"....and meant me! Obviously, she wasn't thinking about all the times that she and Harrison asked for pancakes or eggs, but I gave them cold cereal. I think she probably forgot that I said no to playing Life more than I said yes. Surely it must have slipped her mind the 156 times that I lost my temper this past year. Otherwise the key chain would have said, "Mediocre Mom" on my best days or "Really Crummy Mom" on my worst. Thank God for children who see past your faults and see your heart! Harrison bought me these:
I am a card-carrying Yankee Candle freak. However, I haven't been buying as many because our only Yankee store is in our mall, and I pretty much avoid the mall. Everything costs too much, the teenagers that congregate there always have on too little clothing, my kids always want to go to the Disney Store and Build-a-Bear, and I'm always tempted beyond what is healthy to buy a puppy on credit from the pet store. So Harrison's gift of three holiday scented candles that I can put away in the cabinet until next year were perfect for me. Indiana Mimi's gift to me was this:
Markers! Forty-eight delicious double-pointed Zig markers! I can't tell you what this gift does for my pen/pencil fetish, but let's just say that I have rearranged and sorted them more times than what would be considered normal. Big D gave me this...
This year he has really gotten into photography with the camera I gave him last year. This is one of my favorites. It is of some broken glass on an old truck. What made the gift even more special was this on the back...
Big D graffitti! My favorite part is where he copied some fitting lyrics to one of my favorite praise songs. He also gave me this...
He framed a blown-up copy of our Christmas card picture. We had a lot of fun with that this year. We were sort of pretending to be a rock band, and that's the same old truck in the background. It isn't ours....can you say, "trespassing"? Here's the picture close-up since you can't see it all that well behind the frame...
Cool, huh? Well, we like it anyway. It was just great fun to see D take his hobby to this level. I am very proud of him! So, what did you get this Christmas that made you feel glad or sad or sentimental or guilty or ecstatic or embarrassed? Drop me a note and let me know. I'm sorry....I'm nosey. I can't help it. |
Comments
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by Susan
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by