Once again, Christmas is getting closer, and I still need to get my shopping done. I have some ideas, of course, but today, I will take a nap in my “Comfy Chair!” That is my daily priority. I slipped into my comfy holiday throw blanket, white with all kinds of decorations on it! Snowmen, snowflakes, Christmas trees, candy canes, sugar cookies, Bulbs for the tree, and lights. I quickly fell soundly asleep and began dreaming about Christmas past! When I was young, I always waited for Christmas Eve to do my shopping! The mix of serotonin, adrenalin, Christmas music, and smells of the season generated a shopping frenzy! I would take the day off and shop from morning until closing. Then, I would spend Christmas Eve wrapping presents. It could have been a better wrapper, but it did the job of hiding what was inside. One year, when I was dating, my girlfriend gave me her list of 12 items to choose from. I shopped at Warp Speed and bought all 12 items on her list! When her mom saw what I had done on Christmas day, she told my girlfriend she should marry me! We did get married a few years later.
As time passed, I went from being a college student to working different jobs and only sometimes got Christmas Eve off. I had to plan my shopping around my work schedule. I did spread it out up to two months in advance. That was a good plan and worked for a while.
Then, after getting married, my beautiful daughter was born a few years later. I extended my shopping for Christmas into the summer months and hid them in my closet. That worked well until my daughter grew up, and she would give me a new present idea daily in the months leading up to Christmas. I always asked her:” What do you really want?” She finally would narrow it down to one or two. Like many new parents, we would overbuy presents for her. Keeping within a reasonable budget, but too many. I belong to a couple of Fraternal organizations, and on one cold evening, I headed out to my car, and a friend was getting into his car. He had a daughter about the same age as mine; I asked him if he was ready for Christmas morning, with the many presents his daughter would open in the moment’s frenzy. He said, “Nope, no Frenzy!” I asked, “What do you mean?” he replied, “She gets 3 presents, the same number of presents baby Jesus received.” I thought to myself, that’s a great idea! It keeps the focus on Christmas, not on presents.
Think back to the many Christmases you have had in your life; do you remember each of the presents you received that year? I don’t! But I do remember the time spent with family and friends. I remember the love and the fun; to this day, I reminisce about the family and friends who are no longer with us. As you shop this Christmas, remember that the best gift we can give family & friends is time. The time you spend with them is more valuable than gold. You can make more money, you can make more food, but you cannot make more time! Time spent with love is the most precious gift you can give!
“Remember, every day is a gift! Some are just a little more fun to open than others. – © Joel M. Vernier 12/15/2023 Author of: “The Guinea Pig In The Freezer.”joelmvernier@aol.com
