Last-minute shoppers! I can be accused of being one many times over. However, I have always had the kids taken care of before the last minute since I moved here.
Back in the day, I waited until the last minute to buy my number one friend a gift because she would sometimes end up buying the same thing for herself. My family always did that shopping pretty last minute as well. It often came down to waiting for gifts and bonus checks in order to have money to buy Christmas. My nana was good at saving up her money, it just meant hiding it from my mom.
Now my mom had good intentions, but the thing that almost became tradition was my mom would buy something and then hide it … Come Christmas she could not find it so come august Christmas gift found would become a birthday gift – which may I add made for weird summer gifts sometimes.
While I was with my ex before we were married, we had the normal gift exchange. Then we got married and we hardly ever did Christmas as a couple just with his family. I would always get him something – I could not stand not to. I quickly had to learn that the same selflessness would not be returned. I never got used to that. It hurt more every year. Looking back, I understand we did not have money. I get that gifts should not have been an issue. It was a want for that extra attention more than anything else.
Since being with Jeremy I have changed so much. You’ll have heard me say that so many times in so many ways. This has to be one of the best ways I have changed. Christmas is totally about thought, not items. Jeremy gets me lovely little gifts but it isn’t always on point. What is different is my appreciation for all gifts big and small. This lesson actually started with a kabuki brush a long time ago and has festered and grown bigger in my mind with each passing year.
It’s funny how you can be one way as a child, change totally as a teen and then go back to the child-like ways. I remember no matter what I would get when I was a child, I thought each thing was the biggest of deals. I remember I got some house shoes and perfume one year and I cried because I wanted this particular person to buy me a baby doll. I could not understand why I received what I did. I remember later that evening making myself sick from crying so much. I felt guilty and terrible. How could I not see I was given a good gift for a big kid, not a baby? Things were complicated back then, but from that point on I never looked at gifts that way again. I was better than that. My heart was better than that.
So from this very grinchy story to your heart, remember you may not always know what people are going through, or how they really are trying to do the right thing. Love every gift as if it’s been your only gift ever. It’s the only way to be…If you need some last-minute options you can go over to my amazon and look through the things that I have shared.
Finding Evie 