Gifts: When and When Not to Give Them

I’m not really a “gift” kind of person. Maybe I’ve got some creativity sometimes, but I fall into the category of people who don’t necessarily put it into action. But today was a different sort of day…

While trying to paint a picture for my sister-in-law’s coming baby girl, I realized I just needed to see people. Sometimes when we try to “get something accomplished” being social is much more beneficial and healthy, I think. So, after a quaint market dinner with some girls, I go with one of them to do some Christmas shopping. Little did I know, I would be participating in some secretive, last minute shopping myself.

It all happened with the words some of us dread hearing: “So I have a little something I need to get for you that’s in my car.”
Crap, I think to myself, wondering if the pang of surprise is obvious all over my face. And I hate the fact that this girl is one of my closest friends that just so happens to be leaving before I have a chance to actually go purchase my intended gift for her…of course. So I do the next best thing to waiting to give it to her when she gets back—I run to Belk to “go to the bathroom." I really did have to,but then those creative juices that weren’t there for me during my painting lesson start flowing.

My plan unfolds gracefully as I happen to run into the jewelry department on my hustle to the ladies room. I make about two cirlce around the department until I'm dizzy and, still, unrelieved. The next thing I know, I’ve snagged a pair of funky gold earrings and find myself saying to the clerk, “Can I go next? I’m kind of hiding from someone.” I feel slightly like a criminal, and I'm not proud of it. She takes me to a register in the corner as I peer through the glass door for my friend’s dark hair. None in sight, so I ask for a box and head back to the parking lot wondering how I’m going to make my presentation.

After receiving my gift, the ever-so-lovely wrapped copy of a Cooking Light hard bound, I mutter, “So I’m not much of a wrapper.” Surely she won’t see the Belk writing on top of the box that I hand to her in the darkness of the car. I wonder briefly if I will every be a good mother or wife.

But her respone interupts my thoughts...there it goes, “I see what happened!” she says, shocked but somewhat laughing. “I wondered why going to the bathroom took so long.” I’m playing things off at this point as I eventually am honest with this dear friend and remind her I was going to give her present to her…just didn’t know she was leaving so early.

After making a few piercingly honest comments about my behavior,I am relieved as she opens it, releasing me from my shame by saying, “You are the funniest person I know…no on else would do anything like this, and that’s why I just love you.” She said it like I couldn’t have for myself. At that moment I realized, after assuring her I was, in fact, aware that we are “those friends that give Christmas gifts to,” that I will do many stupid things, but friends that can laugh and not curse at those things are the greatest. I guess I risked looking like a fool, but actually even though I proved to be one, it made a pretty hilarious memory.

I now see Christmas gifts in a whole new light: as I have received mercy, I now feel indebted to give it to others during this special season of giving… even though I can’t even tell if I am being sarcastic in saying this.

Blessings to all as you strive to be thoughtful, generous, and honest all at the same time this season.

Football is Over, Christmas is Here

So it seems households around the South will have fewer mood swings now that SEC football is over. I think it had to end before the Christmas season entered so that no fatherly Scrooges could be present on Saturday game days if "their" team lost. After all, "they" played so hard and have been through so much, so "they" deserve to win, right? Maybe I'm wrong, but I haven't seen any of "them" in pads...
The irony is I have watched more football this year than I have ever before, but I chose to be emotionally uninvolved and actually still enjoyed it.

Christmas is soon approaching and so are the songs on the radio, so I also choose to put one favorite Christmas song and one Christmas picture on my blog for the sheer enjoyment of having a little bit of a good thing before 96.5 drowns out everything else. I just see it that sometimes good things, like football and Christmas, are blown into images they weren't meant to fit, so this is one small effort to savor the simple.

On the left are two Christmas keepsakes I consider pure and simple: Celine Dion singing her heart out, and three 7th graders performing a mini-play (old Scrooge,his Christmas ghost, and young Scrooge). I chose Celine for the pure beauty of the song, and the picture for the ability of kids to bring to life an oftentimes boring play that made my day. It's amazing how a Beatles wig, a hockey mask, and a plastic baseball helmet, not to mention the midget pose, can produce a masterpiece performance.

Not posted here but dear to my heart is Amy Grant's "O Come All Ye Faithful," another pure joy in the midst over done things.