My Kind of Gift

     Don’t you love Frank Sinatra’s “Mistletoe and Holly” song? I do! Oh, by gosh, by golly! It has quickly become one of my preferred roll-the-windows-down-spread-Christmas-cheer-to-the-408-highway songs. On another note, one of this year’s [real] favorites for me is “My Grown Up Christmas List.” Listening to this song makes me think about what kind of gifts I cherish the most and why.

     You don’t have to look around too long to figure out that the holiday season for giving is here. Getting through retail lines feels like a challenge on the Amazing Race and pocket books across the country are starting to break a sweat. (Insert Dave Ramsey plug: I hope you’ve got an envelope for that! J) You know it’s bad when you can’t keep track of all your gift receipts, yikes! While I do enjoy a thoughtful gift and I understand that most of the joy in shopping for gifts is giving the present afterward, I still think there tends to be a lot of heart missing behind this season’s giving practices. Whatever happened to birthdays and anniversaries being the big gift giving days anyway? Shiny new tech gadgets are nice, designer bags get the oh la la's! that their price tags demand, and the good ol’ gym membership for a year is a winner;  but, I figured out a gift that trumps them all. This season I hope that your focus either stays on or shifts to giving the gift of a memory.

     Before you “Gift” love language peeps roll your eyes, what I am saying is that I hope this holiday season reminds you of the reasons why we give and not the stress of forking out $$$ for a luxury tied to a little tag. My kind of gift is the one I can tell my friends, family, and someday kids about for many years to come, even when I am old and “seasoned” in life. I cannot wait to tell our future munchkins that their daddy took me to Niagara Falls for my birthday one year, or that we got to sponsor a  needy child when I was their age with my family one Christmas. I would be remiss to make the highlight of all my Christmas days of the past, present, and future a tale about my first cell phone, a shiny new hair iron, or a great pair of shoes. Do you get what I am saying? Enjoy shopping and picking out those wonderful gifts but don’t forget to stuff them fully with heartfelt intention, loving thoughts, and a memory attached for years to come. That's a price tag that can't be taken off and trashed! This is my kind of gift, one that is all over my grown up Christmas list. J Your kids will forgive you for not getting them the latest i-Whatever this one year on Christmas and you won’t regret it either- I am sure.

P.S. Next year when you go back to buying the designer bags, you can add my name to the list! ;)

 

 "Der, what's a reindeer face look like?"

Apparently, it looks like this...

Memories. <3