The Joy of Gift Giving

Our very own Santa.  All tuckered out from delivering all those presents. 

Well Christmas has come and gone. Like I said, after all that prep it goes so fast.  Which is why it is so important to cherish the day and take everything in.  This year was NOT the year of the Bad Christmas!!!  What's the  year of the Bad Christmas?  The year of the Bad Christmas is the Christmas that my dad always eluded too, where there was no money for gift giving and Santa was too busy to visit our home.  I'm happy that the year of the Bad Christmas has never come.

This Christmas was pretty simple for me.  On Christmas Eve I  attended Service and had family over for dinner.  On Christmas Day I never changed out of my pajamas and relaxed at home with my mom after exchanging gifts.

Now I know Christmas is not about presents and Santa Clause.  Christmas is about the Birth of Jesus our Savior.  I get that.  I have enjoyed attending church on Christmas eve the last two years specifically for that reason to focus on the spiritual meaning for the holiday.  I liked this years message of how God is always with us and makes his presence known right on time.  The spiritual aspect is definitely important and acknowledged.   However, I love the gift giving part of Christmas.  I love getting gifts, but I love giving them even more.  I know some people who don't exchange gifts with there family and it just seems so sad to me.

Gift giving is what made Christmas exciting for me growing up, especially once I was to old to make Santa's list.  Gift giving involved getting into cahoots with my dad to plan my moms gift.  Finding out what really awesome thing he had for her and then planning the prank he'd play on her before giving the gift.  Gift giving meant going out with my mom to pick out things for my dad who never shopped for himself.  It meant wrapping things really pretty and putting them under the tree and knowing the gift recipient had no clue what was inside but know they would love it when they find out.  Gift giving meant being thoughtful and finding special things that would make my loved ones smile.  I feel so lucky that I grew up in a  house where there was thought behind gifts and there was no such thing as a bad gift when the thought behind it was evident.

Opening the presents!!!

All of those feelings have remained with me and gift giving is an important part of the day for me.  This year one of my highlights was being able to see my nieces and nephews open their gifts from me.   I've always given them gifts but I've usually had to mail them or give them early before Christmas, so I never got to see their reactions when opening them.  This year I was able to share in their excitement as they opened their gift bags.  Another highlight is giving my mom her gifts.  I got her her usual favorite gift, perfume.  But I also continued my dad's tradition of playing  a little prank. My mom asked me to get her a new mattress for Christmas.  So I searched for a miniature mattress to wrap and give her for Christmas representing the mattress I'll be buying in the next couple weeks.  I used an angled baby mattress, the kind the use for colicky babies.  She had no clue what was in the gift bag and laughed when she figured it out.

The prank/trick gifts! 

My mom gets in on the trickery too.  Her not being well meant I was with her in the store when she picked out items for me for Christmas.  So I kind of knew what I was getting.  But she packaged things cleverly and had me guessing as I opened my presents.  She placed my scarf in a cylindrical perfume container.  I had no clue what I was opening.  But she really had me guessing when I opened this really big box.  I had no clue what was in it because, like I said, I was with her when she was shopping.  In the big box was a crock-pot.  But not just any crock-pot.  It was the crock-post she got on Black Friday and told me was for herself.  It has been in her apartments for weeks now and I had no clue it was for me.  I even asked to use it once and she told me no.  LOL  now I know why.  She really got me.

Even the Cat's got a gift!  They seemed to like it :-)

I do feel sorry for people who don't enjoy gift giving as much as I do.  It's not even about the actual gifts.  No gifts exchanged in my house were particularly expensive.  There were no iPads , Kindles , or Wii U  gifts under the tree.  Everything was within budgets but everything was thoughtful and appreciated and given with the intent of making the other person smile and creating joyful memories.  What's not to love about that?

What were the highlights of your Christmas?  Do you enjoy gift giving?  If not, I'd love to hear your perspective as well.