The Giving Season

I go along with the crowd and make December my giving season. Since I celebrate the Winter Solstice and others celebrate so many occasions in December, it seems a good time to exchange gifts, good will, and happy happy with others. I buy and give gifts to dear friends (my BFF Sharon, Chickie, and a few others), but most of my gifting efforts are for DH because ... well, he's my DH.

I really enjoy giving gifts. 

My gift for my on-line friends are my cards which are coming along nicely. I burned out another heat gun working on them yesterday. *sigh* It seems like I go through one or more each holiday season's run. At least this time I have a spare in reserve. Maybe it's time to search for a heavy-duty one for next year. Anyway ... I can't send a card to you if I don't have your address. If you haven't sent it to me yet, please do so in a PM or as a response to Monday's December 1st Card Call-Out post.

I love the hat on this kid. Is it a little boy or a little girl? He/she
could be either one in this pic. 

Now - the subject of gifts has me wondering. What was the best or worst gift you ever got for the holidays? I know what my worst was. I grew up as the child of immigrants who were trying to make it in the US. Money was tight, but as a kid, I didn't really understand what things cost at all. I wanted a pool table and really nagged for it. My parents ended up purchasing a ping pong table instead. It was a disaster. We rarely used it and it was fortunate that it folded up for easy storage. I think my Mom finally sold the ping pong table at one of our garage sales. I finally had a chance to use a pool table when I met Sharon. Her parents had one in the basement at her house and we would get together after school and talk while sinking balls and making banked shots.

I get my fun from giving to others. I give toys to kids, I give
food to the food shelves, and I give my cards because I love sharing
my artwork with others. I'm not sure about the statement above, but
it's always nice to receive too - LOL. 

My best present was a specific doll that I really wanted. Now I was not and still am not a big fan of dolls. I owned a single Barbie and one other larger doll, but I really wanted this doll called "Tiny Thumbelina". Anyone else remember this doll? She had a gear you could wind up that would cause her arms and legs to move. I thought she was super cool. Santa did come through for this. I played with it a lot, relatively speaking (I wasn't a focused doll player and tended to abandon them to climb trees or play outside). Actually, thinking back on this, it probably was the care this silly doll took that firmed up my decision to never have children of my own. My holiday present warped my life - LOL. **Laughing hysterically as I run down the hallway of memory**