Gifts!

Of course, this time of year, most conversations you hear are buzzing with the word gift - in one form or another! This is the gift I want, this year I'm buying less gifts, I can't find the gifts I want to buy, I'm so far behind in purchasing gifts, and on and on and on. My friend and I were just discussing gifts yesterday, as I mailed her birthday gift to her one week after her birthday (I had good intentions - even bought the gifts early - but, alas didn't get around to going to the post office!). Anyway, we were saying how wonderfully fun it is to receive and give gifts. That when you absolutely LOVE a gift you receive, it's usually not because it's so rare, or so expensive, or so exquisite (although often gifts are), it's because the person who's giving the gift to you has purchased something that is so you - you know - it's something that personifies who you are or what you like. It's a statement about that friendship or relationship - it's reflective of the fact that you know that person so well. For example, my friend collects marbles. I love stones and found some stone marbles at a rock show. Probably about .75 to $1.00 a piece -  not real expensive. But she adored them. It spoke volumes of comfort and familiarity to her, having received something from me that reminded her of how well I know her. One of my customers just gave me a bead that is a penguin! She hit the jackpot there, since I make jewelry as a hobby, and I adore penguins! In fact, her comment to me was, "when I saw this, I just couldn't pass it up!" That's because she knows me so well, and this little bead reminded her of me. So this holiday season, I encourage us all, to not worry so much about spending a bunch of money or impressing all the others with our gifts at our get togethers, but rather to spend more time thinking about and appreciating the qualities about that person that make it fun to be in relationship with them in the first place - then purchase (or make) something that symbolizes that relationship and makes you think fondly of that person.