December 14, 2007
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Giving! Getting! Giving! Getting!
An overall wearing teddy bear, a fly rod, and a diamond ring, anyone know what these three thing have in common?
Anyone? No?
They are three of my favorite gifts from Christmas past. I know, Christmas isn’t supposed to be about the presents. It is about generosity of spirit, kindness, and giving of ourselves. Who are we kidding really, we all like the gifts.
We like thinking about what we are going to get, of course, but there is joy in the consideration of others too. Browsing the isles searching for just the right thing for that someone, and when you find it, you can’t wait to see what they will do when they open it, sometimes the anticipation of that is better then the opening of our own gifts. Or if your like me you enjoy the making, the opportunity to put love into every piece of what your doing for someone else. Over the years the time to make things has gotten less and less but I still manage to get in a few, after all I need to have some fun.
The kids and Ben were looking at one of my favorite gifts yesterday, an album my sister in law made me before I married her brother. I especially like getting presents people have made for me. I can always feel the love.
Ok, enough of the schmaltz. I do get carried away. The point of the post was the getting NOT the giving.
I’m sure that over the years I have received many, many presents and I liked them all. But there are always the favorites. I want to hear about your favorites!
What is something that you received in a Christmas past that still makes you smile?
Since I went on and on about giving too…
What is a favorite thing that you have given someone in the past?
Comments (24)
When I was a kid I gave my brother one of those first robots to come out.
My wife lost her original wedding ring so about 4-5 years ago I bought her a new one that she loves.
I got a boquet of roses last week. The card on it is the best gift I’ve ever gotten. That’s saying something.
Best gift I ever gave: packages to Iraq. I love those.
One of my favourites was a watch my father gave me one year. For one thing, he wrapped it in a long tubular package and weighed it down on the ends inside with chunks of brick. Then he stuck tiny jingle bells in it. The watch itself as glued in the very middle. It drove me insane trying to figure out what was in that darn package. It was one of the few presents I ever got that I wasn’t able to figure out before hand what it was.
i’ll be back tonite to check in…..thank you ang!
my favorite was an alpaca zarape….it’s 25 years old now and is still the warmest thing I own! and this is so silly but the favorite thing I have given was to my Moms boyfriend last year….it was a box of pecans that he feeds to his squirrels everyday, in fact that’s what he’s getting again this year….ilym
Growing up I got presents from my extended family who hardly knew me….so money instead of crap gifts were always appreciated. From living at my family home I moved right into my husbands home….he is not that sentimental or anything….so the best gifts I got from him were my Kitchen Aid appliances.
The best gift that I ever gave was for my husband a year ago. He was living in New Orleans for a year and I was able to go see him for a few days there. I don’t like football but for the experience of it we saw the Titans and the Texans play…two of his favorite teams. When I came home I decided to make him a Titans/Texans quilt for his bed on the ship for Christmas. It was the biggest and only quilt that I have ever finished.
Later,
Gina
Hmmmmm….I don’t think I really have a favorite gift! Our family has so many traditions and we rarely get to see each other so the entire experience of Christmas throught all of my years is the most memorable thing, for me, related to Christmas.
I loved all the homemade presents my kids made for me when they were younger… clay reindeer ornaments, picture frames with their pictures in them, handprints that seem impossibly small now. I remember laughing hard one year when hubby and I got each other IDENTICAL gifts. Neither of us knew it; but the kids did, and they were darn near hysterical when we opened them up and looked at each other with twin iPods.
I love to give homemade things; but one of my favorite gifts to have GIVEN was to have a bunch of my Dad’s old 35mm slides scanned digitally then uploaded to Shutterfly and made into photo books of old family photos for my Mom & Dad, with amusing commentary by me, of course! They hadn’t seen the slides in years; and now they can enjoy them whenever they want.
Last year, my husband and I had just started dating. The relationship was very very new, but I knew from day one that I was going to marry him and spend the rest of my life with him. I didnt know much about him since we had been seeing each other such a short time, but I did know that he had a love of all things mob-related. I had a painting of the godfather, his favorite movie, commisioned by a local artist. He cried when he got it.
and although it was only a few weeks into the relationship, i knew it was fate. After I gave him my gift, he handed me a tiny box with a beautiful diamond necklace inside.
best.christmas.ever
you were commenting me, right when I was commenting you!
Weird.
RYC: I totally agree, I think a parents responsibility should be taken into account if it is directly related. Did the parents give the children a gun? Did the parents also insist the child learn how to properly handle a weapon? Did they provide alcohol that ended in the death of an innocent motorist?
I have three young boys, who are rapidly headed toward their teen years. I know that my children are prone to depression, and will watch very closely for signs of it. and get them help, if they need it!
No parent is perfect, but those parents who see their children and their destructive behaviour, and never do a damn thing about it, THOSE ARE THE ONES WHO SHOULD BE EVALUATED!
Its so sad though, so very sad. My boys went to church at New Life, and my six year old (the eldest) figured out what happened. Thank god we didnt know the girls who were shot.
I got a red guitar for Christmas one year.
I got Remy an expansive necklace.
favorite gift… i dont know.i have a terrible memory for such things. it used to be this bracelet that my ex gave me, terribly tacky looking, but it had a little saying on it, “Loving you is what taught me what really matters in life. It isn’t all fireworks and weekend getaways to romantic places, it’s the day-to-day getting through both the challenging and the uneventful.” And even though im no longer with him, thats still one of the sweetest things ive ever been given, but it’s from him, so its also tainted and i can’t really love it anymore…
favorite gift ive given… ummmm, huh. for my sisters 13th birthday i handmade a box and lined it with some pretty fabric and then placed all these special little items inside the box that represented memories of things we’ve done together… it was cute
favorite thing i have been given? well.. it would have to be a watch my hubby gave me with the university of alabama seal on it the christmas before i graduated (keep in mind i was 30 when i graduated). why was it my fave? well, because of the way he gave it to me. he snuck around the corner to “moon” me and it was sticking out of the top of his undies. gotta love that sense of humor! favorite thing i have gave? well.. i gave my oldest daughter a doll house years ago, and she about wiggled and jumped out of her skin with excitement!
ryc: those doggone peacocks belong to someone that lives on my traveling road. im glad im not the only one that finds that odd… told ya’ll i live in the middle of nowhere and live in the middle of nowhere! tee heee
Through the years, I have migrated from being someone who just goes around looking for something someone would like to have materially, like a game, or a cd, or something for the house, etc. To something where there is meaning behind it, or something they would use. Something with thought. It may not be necessarily expensive, or worth a lot to anyone other than the person who is receiving it. Like for example, the photo album you got, or for example, if someone were to give me a painting. I would rather it be something they made, than something they just went out and bought.
Best inanimate gift I ever got: A gold and pearl anklet from the man I knew I would love forever. It only took us nearly 40 years to finally get married, but that is an epic.
Best inanimate gift I ever gave: I really can’t recall…I always give quality stuff.
Favorite gift received was a dinner made by my then, 12 year old son. (but it wasn’t for Christmas)
Favorite gift given – Sending my parents to Mexico last year.
A saphire ring.
I worked for MONTHS selling rings at a flea market booth for some lady when I was a senior. ‘Just $9.95, garunteed not to turn your finger green, or black or whatever! My first customer? Someone who had bought a ring the weekend before, and sported a green finger! LOL
My husband was the third kid of four… (the fourth born five years later, and since she was a girl, much wanted!) My MIL bore not 2 kids in a mere 20 months, but THREE. (My BIL was three months premature) The way he was treated by both parents, it is obvious he was not really wanted, and then he looks like the father of my MIL who had deserted her when she was a kid herself.
He did not have a whole lot of self esteem, and I think I was the first person who really gave him that. (And believe me, that took YEARS!!!) But when we were dating, about a year before, he had seen a saphire ring and had always wanted one. Of course his parents never gave him one.
He was in the military (his mother had kicked out) and had come home for Christmas. We knew we were getting married, and by this time, plans were already being made. (In fact, he gave me an engagement ring for Christmas that year) I knew we would not have a whole lot of money after we were married, and certainly not for such extravagences like that. So, I bought that ring. I put it on layaway, and paid it off.
I’ll never forget that the day I paid it off and got it, his sister Vicki (the sane one) and I had decided to go see Weird Science. (Showing off my age here, aren’t I? LOL) His mother had come along as well. Vicki and I were and are good friends, and she was really thrilled with the gift. I got a nasally, “Oh, must be nice” out of his mother (I swear, that will go on her tombstone!) who thought that my parents (whom she thought were really rich, but weren’t!!!) gave me the money. I told her No, that I had worked for every last dime to pay for it. To which she said, “I don’t think Douglas is worth such extravagance”. Boy, that pissed me off, and I told her that indeed I thought he was!!! (And still do!)
Anyway, he was so surprised and thrilled with the ring. He still has it to this day, although we need to get it enlarged as his finger has grown over the years…
Best gifts I have received? Well, my dad made a crucifix last year that I adore… and the same Christmas as the one I told you about, my Grandmother gave me the 5×7 of a photo of my Grandfather and me that sat on his desk for years and years. He had passed away in 1982. I was a little 5 year old kid at Easter in my Easter finest… And he was wearing those classic 1973 white shoes and belt!!!
That I have given? Gave someone a long 4 day weekend in the Grand Canyon…
best gift given? umm, a red shirt coz’ it took me a lot of thinking before giving it to my bud. the issue was, i love that shirt. lol!
and yeah, the outreach that we had last dec 1. that was the best. seeing those grandmothers happy was very heartwarming.
that’s easy I just got it today from Lisey and it meant so much it’s Mother Theresa’s book -her latest. It meant so much to me cause I was telling her about how she -mother theresa had alot of pain and doubts about her faith and love of God. I had read a critic about it and over lunch we talked about it months ago and she knows I won’t spend money on a hard back until it comes out in paperback.
I got an engagment ring somewhere between my birthday and Christmas.4 days apart so it was a combo gift. golly….41 years ago…could it have been that long ago!
I gave my Dad a black powder rifle kit. He liked it. That was a Christmas miracle that he would actually like something I gave him!
I am unable to answer so fastly to your question Ang but what I keep for sure is you are a gift for Xanga !
Love
Michel
For me it was a Fort Apache play set as a child, I wore that thing out.
The gift I most enjoyed giving was a combination of things to Trusty.
In our early years of marriage when money was tight she wanted a microwave, we kept putting it off. Finally I found one on sale just before Christmas. Not wanting to give her something that although she wanted was not very romantic I also got her a teddy. On the tag I wrote ‘Cookware inside’
She tore into the packaging whipping open the door and grabbing the teddy without even looking at it. She was sitting on the floor holding the teddy up in the air while trying to find the ‘cookware’
My very reserved 90 something grandmother got the joke right off and just started cackling. It was rare to hear her laugh at anything, it’s a good gift when you can make two women happy at the same time.
When I was a kid, I once got a pair of toe socks for Christmas. As a kid, I was very disappointed at first, but darned if those socks didn’t become my favorite and every time I see toe socks in the store now, I think of those ones I got as a kid!!
As for giving, not sure if I have a favorite, though I do like to do counted cross-stitch and as I don’t have nearly that much wall space, I give most of them away, sometimes for holidays and birthdays. I am a big overspender, too, so I give way too much