Up until that point, my life was centered on keeping Advent in my heart, deadlines at work, and holiday events for WriteOn Joliet.
During that time, Rebekah decorated the house and put up our family tree - and she also put up the little tree for my room (that Joshua and Timothy brought me for St. Nicholas in 2020) because I simply didn't have time to decorate it myself.
On my first day off, I tied up some loose "life" ends on Tuesday while Rebekah went to some appointments after work. But then she and I dedicated part of Wednesday and Thursday to Christmas preparations.
Now I also spent some time with some plans for Rebekah's birthday. And we held our annual game and pizza night on New Year's Eve. The rest of the time was spent ed-ting the second novel by Ed Calkins, Steward of Tara, because we need books in hand before Calkins Day.
But when Rebekah clocked out of work on Wednesday, we focused only on Christmas, and we shopped for approximately twenty people. Then when she clocked out of work on Thursday, we wrapped (and wrapped and wrapped).
We are still hoping to embellish the gifts with ribbons and bow - if we have time. It's a busy work week, and I'm leading a WriteOn Joliet meeting tonight.
What we did not do is spend lots of money on gifts per person. This is partly because we don't ask people for their "wish lists." And it's partly because we are also very thrifty shoppers.
But we do know how to give good gifts.
We buy gifts we are reasonably certain people will like based on what we know about that person, their needs, their wants, their likes, their hopes and dreams.
That's how Timothy wound up with pink pajamas with cats printed all over them - and he was delighted. He still has them, even though that gift was from a Christmas at least fifteen years in the past.
Our emphasis is on meaning over money.
Now sometimes, the receiver is perplexed at a gift, such as this gift of paint and plain white T-shirts in various sizes that Daniel gifted me last year. In the hands of Jasmine and Rebekah, the results were stunning and a terrific gift for quite a few people.
Here are five photos to show what Rebekah and I accomplished in those two half, very fun days of working together to find the right gifts. We can't wait to see people's expressions when they open their gifts on January 7.
Now, even if Christmas is already a distant memory for you, may the love, joy, and peace the season brings remain in your hearts and in your homes for all of 2024.
Happy Thursday!
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