Beneath the Wraps

Last year Ellen took my mom to the store to purchase three gifts.  I don't know whether Ellen suggested it or if mom had thought on her own to get her three youngest grandchildren one gift each. When I saw them on the table I asked my mom about them. "What are these?" I asked. "I don't know.  I think they're Ellen's" I didn't think they were. I didn't see much of Ellen when I was at mom's house.  But somewhere we made a connection and I had asked if they really were hers.  She said that mom had purchased them for Jenna, Anna and Gary but she hadn't gotten around to wrapping them. I wrapped them and tagged them and placed them under the tree.  My mom kept asking who the gifts were for and where they came from.  She didn't seem to even know that Christmas was coming up pretty soon. She was like a kid on Christmas day.  Who knew it would be the last Christmas that we would spend in her house?  or that it would be her l...

          When I asked Jenna what she wanted to get her dad for Christmas last year, she did not even hesitate with an answer.                  “A Bow Tie,” she announced proudly.           I visualized an elastic and paper doily all bunched up.              “What kind of a bow tie?” I asked.   “A Black one.”  And so it was.  We purchased a black bow tie for Roland – the only black bow tie that we found.           I was reminded about gifts – precious to the child’s mind, but very impractical.  For instance my wanting to buy my dad a pink Batman shirt for a gift.  I don’t remember it, but my mom said that it happened.           First off you need to understand that m...

Anyone who knows me knows that gift cards ( for the most part) say, “I don’t care enough to be creative or to know you well enough to know what you really want.”  Anybody who truly knows me knows I loathe shopping.  I would rather have a useless gift that comes from the heart than a gift card. I am probably in the minority as not everybody feels that way. I know my sister-in-law would much rather have the gift card than an item that she’s just going to exchange anyway.  At least two of my boys love receiving gift cards and being able to get what they want (with pants and shoes it’s just as well; they can’t just be purchased as they have to be fitted to their bodies) For a while I refused to buy gift cards.  What does that say about me.  Giving someone a gift that I would never want for myself.  And yet how often do we buy or make things for people that we would never purchase or make for ourselves?   Sending a gift card to a newlywed ...