Wrap Yourself This Christmas!

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that “the greatest gift is a portion of thyself.”

Yes, I love to craft and create. It has always been my gift to close family and friends to make their gifts at Christmas. The year Red was born I made Christmas ornaments. Small glass balls adorned with a snowman that was built from her tiny footprint. Cute, huh? The next year I made clocks out of wooden plaques with our family’s memories from that year captured in photographs on the face. Pretty cool. The next year it was a wreath made of jingle boughs decorated with small photo frames that captured our memories from the year. Fun. This year I am recycling. I can’t tell you because you just might be getting one, but know it will be recycled and handmade and Red and I hope you like it.

I agree with Pam that more often than not our friends and loved ones wish to have something special under the tree to open. I, in fact, am guilty of this very infraction. So much so that I gave my mother $100 and asked her to take my little girl shopping for the gifts on my wish list. Sad. True. Okay, so that has more to do with creating tradition and teaching a little red-headed princess how to think about someone other than herself at Christmastime, but equally as selfish is my wish for a small gift or two to open on Christmas morning. In all honesty I don’t need anything, but I wish beyond wishes for that small acknowledgement that I exist. Which brings me to the greatest gift of all – friendship.

Aside from the crafty-handmade gifts and the little tokens wrapped underneath my tree I want to give myself and my friends the greatest gift – each other. I plan to open my home to family and friends for one night steeped in frivolous fun – a re-gifters gift exchange, a covered dish, some hot cider, a carol or two, maybe even a viewing of Rudolf or the first Miracle on 34^th Street. No matter what we do, just being together is what counts.

This year would have been impossible to bear without the love and support of our friends so now is the time for me to pay it back, or pay it forward, depending on your perspective. Won’t you join me?

What will you do this season to make it bright on a budget?