Gifts

Growing up, I didn't celebrate Christmas. Well, we did have gifts. Our parents did a good job of making sure we were not left out when all our friends were getting stuff this time of year. I loved opening presents. Over the years, my brother and sister would kid me that the gift wouldn't matter, as long as I opened a lot of presents. It was so bad, that one year my parents got me a drum set, and they wrapped each drum, cymbal, stand, stick, etc. separately. It was actually pretty cool. Frustrating but cool.

This year was different for me and our family, including our extended family. We got our kids considerably less, and requested considerably less. And you know what? It was awseome. Our children were not asking, "do I have another?" Don't get me wrong. It was hard for the grandparents, but they did it anyway. The kids were just fine.

Gifts are an interesting thing. Why do we give gifts? I know we say we give so that we can make someone happy, but then if they don't respond appropriately when they open it, don't we feel disappointed? I mean, I spent so much time, energy, and money on that gift! It is THE gift for them. Why are they not more excited??? Why do we feel disappointed when they don't react the way WE want them to react?

My wife does an excellent job of giving gifts. I think its her "gift". She has this ability to give me a gift that I am not expecting, that is absolutely perfect for the present time. I am not really sure how she does it. Me on the other hand, I am terrible at giving gifts. That's the reason why you should never tell me "thank you" for a gift that the Wilkins family gave you. More than likely, Michelle was the one who picked it out. I'm just saying....

One of our cousins was asking me what I wanted for Christmas over Thanksgiving. I had to think about it. Finally, I said, "you know, a book is always good thing." And this is a true statement. But let's think about this a little bit further: I had to "THINK" about what I wanted someone to get me. I really struggled with this. I mean, I have a good job. If there is something I want, I usually go buy it. I sometimes come home with a surprise for the kids or the wife for no apparent reason. I usually don't save up my wishes for Christmas, create a list, and then hand it out. I guess that is the reason why some say that I am rather "hard to buy for."

But let's dig even further, because that is where I stayed for a few days. After the conversation with my cousin, I couldn't stop thinking about the concept of buying gifts. The reason for this is there are millions, if not billions of people who just don't have anything. Nothing. Zip. And it was that thought that kept popping in my head. It wouldn't go away. Well, it turns out there are a litany of charity organizations that are begging for people to help out. Compassion International is one of these groups that allows you to sponsor a child for just a few dollars a month. Hope International is another that provides micro loans to self employed people in 3rd world countries. Michelle and I presented the concept of micro finance loans to our college group, and they raised $100 dollars that we gave as a group to this charity. They were so excited! And don't miss the importance in this: 100 dollars is a lot of money for a group of college kids! But they saw a situation where they could give something meaningful and how it would be a positive impact in someone's life. My point in all this is that it seems we do not have to break the bank with our own kids and family, because they are usually content. We can actually provide money to those who truly are in need. And this is exactly what Michelle and I are going to do for 2010, and hopefully, beyond.

Back to the conversation with my cousin. I ended up telling him later on that I really didn't need anything , and that I believed he could do better by purchasing a goat for a family through World Vision or some organzation of his choosing. I also told him about Michelle and I planning to sponsor a child. He got back with me later on, and it turned out that he and his wife were planning on sponsoring a child to. How cool is that?! They had been talking about similar concepts and were struggling with what to do. My thoughts only soldified their decision.

I want to be real clear: this is not a guilt blog to make you go out and give money to an organization. That is not my intent. I want people to understand that for many of us, we give gifts for other reasons than to make the gift reciever happy. And for the gift reciever, they usually have the things they need or want. Now, I know you want to give things to your significant other, kids, favorite son-in-law, etc. And these are good things. But, if you really want to make somebody happy, why not give in a manner that provides for people's basic needs?

* Some Random December Moments

Christmas is fast approaching and we have been doing many things. Today is our first day off from school and I have nothing on the calendar for the next two weeks except travel. Today I have nothing on our agenda except enjoying our day off (unless of course I feel like getting the house scrubbed from top to bottom, wrapping the presents, folding the gigantic pile of laundry and packing for our trip to grandmas ... oh and then cooking meals for my family, but surely they won't be harmed by a few hours without food) A few interesting highlights from our past few weeks...

• I walked around with a splint on my finger for a few days to help remind myself and the smaller members of my family not to use/grab/ or twist it. I recently visited my physician for a general check up and mentioned my middle joint was hurting. After a process of elimination he declared it a tendinitis of the extensor hood due to over twirling. I now have medical documentation that my daughter is above average in twirling. She will hold my finger and twirl over and over and over again. Perhaps I should sign her up for ballroom dancing someday.
• I finally agreed to let my son bring a friend home from school and they had a great time until my son accidentally hit him with a rock and busted his lip and broke a brand new front tooth. There were many emotional responses. The little guy was perhaps the calmest of us all. He was merely bleeding and waiting for his dad. My son was worried his friend wouldn't like him anymore and that his parents would think our house was a dangerous place. My thoughts were somewhat similar and I felt nauseous for days just thinking about that little guys coming to such harm in my home. His parents by the way were terribly gracious and the little guys saw me at school a few days ago and shouted at me across the gym "I am OK!"
• We have finished laying laminate wood in our downstairs in another attempt to make our house look more "buyable" Now we only have to lay 150+ feet of corner round to finish the project - along with getting all the mess out of the garage, but Judah has Christmas Eve off so that is how he can begin his holiday fun:)
• My daughter has been having her graduate courses in dressing decently and maintaining privacy. She is still prone to run around naked shouting for someone to help her with a bath or some wardrobe change. We had to take away all the 3T skirts because they were too short. In these recent lessons she has now become quite the morality police, just ask some of the teenage girls at our church (she will pull up any collar she feels is too revealing). While sitting on my lap last night she turned to me and pulled my collar farther up because apparently I was showing a bit too much cleavage for her taste. I would add that she was sitting on my shirt and her little body was contributing to the issue at hand. However she felt that my neckline was ... and I quote ..."inappropriate."

I hope to do some sort of Christmas themed post soon, but you never know. Timeliness is not my best virtue.

* Quirky Quotes

In order to share the love I thought I would throw out something the kids have made me say that otherwise would have never come out of my mouth. My princess walked around the side of the car yesterday, having recently touched some unknown substance. She repeated the phrase "Ew Ew Ew ew ew ew" A lot. My response...

"Just wipe it on momma."

She felt much better.

Here's a shout out to all the moms who have voluntarily caught projectile vomiting or any other bodily fluid due to some dormant mom gene that ramps up after the birthing process...

Ew.

* Quirky Quotes

This category of posts was designed to help me remember the wonderfully adorable and sometimes randomly wacky things my children say. Today however I am quoting someone else. Judah actually. This goes to show that sometimes children make you say randomly wacky things as well.
During the bedtime activities he encouraged our children to brush their teeth. Since we have recently traveled their tooth brushes were still in the travel bag and it has moved around. After it was located apparently there was some dispute over toothbrush usage because my husband was heard to say...

(to my daughter)

"Use your own toothbrush!!!"

* Where is Winter?

We have completed the Thanksgiving holidays and now are faced with the month of December. Last night we pulled all the boxes out of the attic, but that was all the effort we gave it and promptly went off to bath and bed routines. Sentence number two from my son this morning was "Are we going to put up Christmas today?" I love the wording, not 'the Christmas decorations' but 'Christmas' as though we owned the holiday itself and packed it away in several boxes each year.
In a similar vein of thought I woke up this morning thinking about wearing sweaters and wondering when it would snow. I looked out the window to perhaps our first heavy frost of the season and thought again 'when will it snow?' Apparently I have not outgrown the school girl thinking of snow days. So I ran to my trusty weather center (aka weather.com) and was distressed to learn that while apparently it is snowing in SOUTHERN New Mexico and NORTHERN Mexico there was no snow planned for my area in the next 10 days!
Yesterday my son had a short sleeved t-shirt and my daughter has recycled the pants under skirts routine from last year. Although she has a distressing lack of skirts for this technique this year, all of last years being in the 3T size and she is now -finally- wearing 4T. (I bought a true 4T skirt this weekend and it fell off her, apparently her waist is still in the 2-3T range but her father has emphatically said she can not wear the length of a 3T anymore)

Sigh. Where is winter?