I don't suspect - I know - that I'm a lousy gift giver. Gift giving is not my love language. While I like to receive gifts (generally) and give them, I'm no good at choosing them. Some people have a knack for finding just the right gift for the right person but regardless of how well I know a person, I rarely get it right.It's become harder as the boys have grown older. How many times have you heard women wail, "I never know what to buy a male"? Well the woman wailing the loudest is me.
However I have another confession to make. I'm not any better at choosing gifts for females. I seriously fail at this gift giving business.
Okay, a few times I've gotten it right. Like the time we gave our children gift cards for Christmas and Son#1 promptly went out and bought an Akubra hat. It was something I would never have thought to buy for him but it turned out that it was something that he obviously wanted and I received a lot of enjoyment knowing that he would enjoy using it especially since it seemed that he probably wouldn't have been able to buy it otherwise.
But mostly I think I fail. And I think it's getting harder. Nowadays, if we want something we go out and buy it. I can remember as a child if I asked for something I was told to wait until Christmas or my birthday (I suspect my parents kept a note somewhere of the things we asked for so that come gift buying time they had a list of things to choose from - I should learn to copy their example). Nowadays, we rarely wait. So it gets harder and harder to buy for the loved ones in our lives because - let's face it - they generally have everything they need - or want for that matter.
Recently I heard of one family's solution when it came to giving gifts to their children. Mine are mostly grown now but I wish I'd heard of this years ago. Still, it's never too late to start (at least with the ones still single). It's called the "Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh” ritual. The idea is that each child gets three gifts - no more and no less. The gold gift is something they want; the frankincense gift is something they need (I no longer have to feel guilty for giving clothes!); and the myrrh gift is something to nurture their souls (such as a journal, a book, a CD of Christian music, a devotional book, even a Bible). I like this idea. I think I could do okay at the frankincense and myrrh - the gold might be a little harder. But what is it they say? Two out of three ain't bad!
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