Writer, Photographer,

These are the gifts for my family, which I’ll be dropping off at Thanksgiving because I won’t see them for Christmas this year…sad!

I really like this time of year, and I love to give gifts. I put gifts into little piles in the guest room and when I need to get into the Christmas spirit I go in there with all my ribbons and bows and tissue paper. There’s nothing I like more than to find someone something they’d really love, and something they didn’t even know they wanted. To give gifts like this, you have to really know someone and pay attention to what they say. I personally think that doing this is one of the most sincere ways to show I care. In the past I’ve felt a little shafted sometimes when people close to me don’t know what to get me. I’m a pretty simple person in terms of likes and dislikes, and I don’t think it’s all that unreasonable for people to expect a genuine, heart-felt gift from a loved one who knows them best. 

So I try to always give thoughtful gifts and for some people it really isn’t easy, but it’s worth it when the effort is appreciated and the gift is liked. Sometimes though, the gift really isn’t appreciated like I thought it would be. That’s the worst hurt of all, and I finally figured out that all this gift-giving business is so fraught with emotional land-mines because it’s my love language and not necessarily something other people think a lot about. So, in the end, I love Christmas and I love gifts. And I’ve learned to be happy with that.