We have a soft agreement in our family.
For birthdays and Christmas we send emails, make phone calls, give personal greetings to those we love or we do whatever we want.
It wasn’t always this way. When the kids were young there were presents – lots of them. Maybe a roll of life savers or a bracelet bangle. Now that I look back on it, I probably spent more money on wrapping paper than the kids spent on gifts. That how things were then. Times change for families. My kids are gone – some thousands of miles away; one family just a sprint away, still ... all are gone. And so I wasn’t expecting any gifts this year, more than the always welcomed email or phone call or even blog post.
Still as far as gifts go, Kelvin and I scored on two fronts. Lurene slipped into the Santa bag a tea towel for me. I wondered if I should cherish it or use it. I am going to do both by doing the latter.
Kelvin received a wonderful gift in the “present exchange” held at the family party at Marcia’s house. I had bad timing. That was just the moment when I knew it was time for a nap. I only woke up to hear the happiness in the voices of those who came out of the game with presents that became more meaningful, the more they were desired by others. But this post is not about that.
I want to focus on Audra Treleaven. “I am five,” she says, beaming, as though she has entered adulthood. There is a look in her eye and a tilt of her head that lets you know she has gone through a rite of passage. I think it may have been when she started kindergarten in the fall, because by then she was telling her mother, “No, you let me out of the car a block away from school. I will walk in.”
On the night of the party Bonnie Wyora was watching how Audra can print her name – in block letters.
“Wherever did she learn that?”, Bonnie asked Marcia.
“From her brothers. She is curious, dying to know everything about printing and she copies everything.”
And that is how we knew where the gift came from the Kelvin received.
It is a reading light that hangs around your neck.
Others who have this light like it ... say that it really works.
What I like about the light is that Audra added a special touch to the package.
Printing practise at the bottom of the gift.
What kind of treasure is that.
Arta
For birthdays and Christmas we send emails, make phone calls, give personal greetings to those we love or we do whatever we want.
It wasn’t always this way. When the kids were young there were presents – lots of them. Maybe a roll of life savers or a bracelet bangle. Now that I look back on it, I probably spent more money on wrapping paper than the kids spent on gifts. That how things were then. Times change for families. My kids are gone – some thousands of miles away; one family just a sprint away, still ... all are gone. And so I wasn’t expecting any gifts this year, more than the always welcomed email or phone call or even blog post.
 |
| ... a gift to me from Lurene ... |
Kelvin received a wonderful gift in the “present exchange” held at the family party at Marcia’s house. I had bad timing. That was just the moment when I knew it was time for a nap. I only woke up to hear the happiness in the voices of those who came out of the game with presents that became more meaningful, the more they were desired by others. But this post is not about that.
I want to focus on Audra Treleaven. “I am five,” she says, beaming, as though she has entered adulthood. There is a look in her eye and a tilt of her head that lets you know she has gone through a rite of passage. I think it may have been when she started kindergarten in the fall, because by then she was telling her mother, “No, you let me out of the car a block away from school. I will walk in.”
On the night of the party Bonnie Wyora was watching how Audra can print her name – in block letters.
 |
| ... a fantastic gift in the present game ... |
“From her brothers. She is curious, dying to know everything about printing and she copies everything.”
And that is how we knew where the gift came from the Kelvin received.
It is a reading light that hangs around your neck.
Others who have this light like it ... say that it really works.
 |
| ... the best part of the mylight gift ...Audra's printing practice at the bottom of it |
Printing practise at the bottom of the gift.
What kind of treasure is that.
Arta
I didn't realize she had done that. Now you can't throw away the packaging!
ReplyDeleteI have to tell you that we didn't open the gift for a long time. Every time I went to pull off the plastic, I would see that printing by Audra and I would want to keep it just a little while longer.
ReplyDeleteI would stare at it as well, and wonder what she was thinking when she found a pen and printed the name of the gift again at the bottom of the packaging.
In the distant past, I scratched my name into the wood at the base of my mother's and father's new upright radio (it was about four feet tall) when I had first learned to print. I don't think I knew it was wrong to do that.
As soon as I found out it was not the right thing to do, I had to live with the shame of seeing it printed there -- for years and years. Every time thereafter, that I got close to the radio, my head down at floor level to listen to Lux Theatre at 7 pm, there it was ... my name.