Christmas Gifts

We don’t have many people we get Christmas gifts for, and most of the people, like us, don’t need much.

My niece in the Washington Beltway inherited a houseful of furniture from my parents, probably including silverware. That makes her hard to find things for, especially since we seldom see her. I did send her a present earlier this week. I took it to one of the we-pack-it stores and they packed it, shipped it, and gave me the tracking number, which I sent to her to make sure she knows it’s coming and arranges for it to be received.

My wife and I don’t need much that we don’t get for ourselves. My wallet went through the washing machine a couple of weeks ago, but I found a similar one at TJ Maxx for pretty cheap, although it cannot replace the one I bought in Venice about four years ago. The biggest damage was to photos, which are on the computer, and to a ten-ride ticket on the Metra, which takes us to the Loop. The conductors were accommodating and punched the remaining four rides when we went down on Tuesday so that wasn’t a problem. For the most part I like things I don’t have to dust or display. That isn’t the kind of thing I usually give however.

Because my wife and I both are painting watercolors lately, we’ve decided to get a couple things we could both use. That’s our “big” present, and it isn’t very big. The package is being shipped, according to a recent email, from dickblick.com as I write this, and should get here next week. I’ll wrap it and put it under the tree. And because we’re painting, we’re giving paintings for Christmas. A wise woman I know said that she doesn’t give her paintings, she lets recipients pick them out, and that’s what I think we’ll do this Christmas.

We decided to put up a tree this year, by the way, and invited our neighbors across the street for pumpkin soup and trimming. Sue did a great job. The tree is beautiful, twinkling away in our bay window. Packages lie under it. The only thing missing is someone to sleep there, and we may be able to arrange for a teenager to come in for that, too.

Speaking of, Grandson David called with his Christmas list from college last week. Among other things, he’d like a hoodie. We got him one when we were in Prague a couple of years ago, and he still wears it. We got him one for his birthday when we were in London this year, but he can always use another one, I suppose. We already decided on his present, and we’re getting the same thing for his brother Jonathan. We hope they like them. They aren’t watercolor paintings

We have a couple of other people we give, but the gifts are remembrances rather than important Gifts.

The gift I like most is Time. Time with other people for conversation. Time for building gingerbread houses with the grandsons (although they’re a little big for this now. Ha. No, a lot big), something I enjoy. Time spent on an “adventure” with our friend Theresa. One of her gifts of time was a tour of ethnic Catholic Churches in Chicago on Holy Saturday. That was fascinating, interesting, and fun. Time spent walking the dogs with friends, especially at the dog park, where I have a lot of my social life lately. Time running the dogs with me at the Dunes, especially during the winter when no other people or dogs are there. I love Lake Michigan at every stage, calm, thunderous, frozen. It’s always beautiful, and I always dress warmly enough in the winter.

One of the gifts I treasure most is Time at most-weekly Saturday breakfast with the grandson’s dad. We’ve become regulars and have our own waitress. We talk about the important issues of the day, at least the issues important to us, and friends and acquaintances stop by the table before Tim has to go to work and I go home to write blog entries.