Musings by BJ Sibley
Gifting
We’ve just finished the biggest ‘gifting’ part of the year and I have to admit to loving it.
Shopping for just the right gift to give to just the right person is an art that I feel I’ve mastered over the years. I just always hope the recipients agree with me.
My Christmas shopping starts whenever I see just the perfect gift. It could be in January, July or on the 24th of December.
Sometimes I have something in mind and other times things just seem to ‘call out to me’. Sometimes I remember what some family member has said they need or want, and I file that thought away until the holidays.
I used to write lists, but now I just have a list of names. Not that I’m likely to forget anyone, but the way my mind works these day…you just never know.
There is however, one small problem I seem to have when it comes to gift buying too far in advance of the gifting day. I tend to lose things; yep, I sure do.
One year I bought one of my sons a special book for Christmas and didn’t find it until six months after the event.
This holiday season I tore apart my closet looking for a gift I bought for a girlfriend back in June. It was one of the ‘call out to me’ things that I saw in a small shop in Lake Tahoe. When I saw it, I knew it was perfect for her. When I got home, I put the gift in a safe place and then promptly forgot where I put it.
I really thought it was on a shelf in my closet, but when I looked, it wasn’t there. Maybe on another shelf? Nope, not there either.
OK, fine. I needed to clean out the closet anyway. I moved all the summer stuff up high and put all the sweats, sweaters, sweat shirts and turtlenecks down lower. Every shelf and hanger now is neat and tidy…But where did that gift go?
So, I’ll check out the hall closet. That would be the place where I finally found my son’s gift six months later. It should be a great place to look and having found one gift there, maybe I’ll find the other. No luck there, either.
Where could that thing be?
Each year I make a few homemade things for folks. I really love to knit, sew, paint or whatever and making a gift gives you lots of time to think about the recipient.
When my first two grandsons were young, I used to knit them a sweater each year for Christmas. One had a teddy bear on it, one a dragon, there was a sweater with balloons and one with a boat. One day when the grands were about 10 and 13, I was visiting them and my daughter-in-law was showing me a new purchase in one of the kid’s bedrooms. Looking around the room, I noticed the closet door was open and I couldn’t believe my eyes. There, hanging on little hangers, were all the sweaters I’d knit when the boys were little. I couldn’t believe she still had them all. My daughter-in-law noticed where I was looking and she started smiling. “I just couldn’t throw those sweaters away once the kids outgrew them,” she said. “They are just too cute, and you made them.” Yes, I did, and put a little love in each knit and purl, too. It made me so happy to know that she still kept those sweaters.
Maybe, after all is said and done, it is the care, thought and love we put into each gift that is the best part of the present. As the years roll by, we’ll never remember what we gave or got from each person, but we will remember the love wrapped around each one.
(PS: Dear friend: With any luck I’ll find that gift by the time your birthday
