Gifts
On Christmas Eve, we have always opened one gift before bedtime—just a little something to whet the appetite for Christmas Day. Growing up, this delicious paper-tearing kept me awake for an hour or more after Dad tucked me into bed. Mom always had just the right gift in mind, something in the middle of the I-can’t-believe-I-got-this! scale but not so high that we didn’t know we had even more excitement ahead of us.
It is also our tradition with Christmas gift-giving to open gifts in a particular order: youngest to oldest. Zoe quickly decided, as I did as a kid, that this was her favorite time of year to be the youngest. Kevin started things off by passing Zoe a small, silver package. I nodded quickly, knowing that the package contained the annual addition to her Christmas ornament collection. In July, I had found the perfect ornaments at a seaside shop on Edisto Island—white frosted balls handpainted with playful, sparkling blue elephants, each child’s name, and the year. The artist who created the ornaments has a son with autism, and she donates a percentage of her profits to autism research. Delighted with her first taste of Christmas, Zoe hung her ornament on the tree with the rest and settled in to watch everyone else.
As Kevin searched the tree for Adam’s perfect first gift, Mom and I spoke at once, pointing to an odd-shaped package at the front of the tree. We knew it contained Riley’s gift for Adam (which she had selected herself the day that Mom and I took the kids shopping for their gifts)—a glittery silver New Year’s Eve hat. Adam opened the gift with an enthusiasm we had not seen in previous years, but it wasn’t until he spoke that I knew I’d received my best gift of the season. “It’s my hat!” Adam exclaimed, donning the hat with unmistakable pleasure. This clearly articulated sentiment, with it’s perfectly appropriate tone and expression, filled all of us with a joy that is beyond words. Suddenly, we all knew this would be a Christmas distinctly set apart in our memories. Riley watched with a satisfied grin, tasting the sweet knowledge that she had picked a gift that her brother truly appreciated.
Zoe absorbed all of this palpable joy with her keenly perceptive heart and quickly bolted from her chair. “I want Riley to open my gift. I know she is going to LOVE it.” The kids had helped wrap their gifts and had placed them around the room and under the tree as well. Zoe went straight to the spot where she’d left Riley’s gift and swiftly delivered it to her sister. “Riley, you’re going to love this,” she said with more anxious anticipation than I’d seen from her in a while.
Riley tore open her new High School Musical makeup set and offered her sister a mature smile. She liked the gift. Zoe fluttered back to my chair, her enthusiasm growing. “Mom, I knew she would love that, that’s why I got it for her.” Having discovered the blessing of giving, that fantastic feeling you get when you know you’ve brought joy to another, Zoe insisted that her gifts be given out immediately. I’m not sure how she missed me (I didn’t open that awesome bag of dark chocolate until the next day.); I actually opened a beautiful Southwestern-styled watch from Kevin. Everyone else opened a Zoe-gift for Christmas Eve. Kevin opened the first of three different multi-purpose tools with flashlight included (He says there must be a blog in there—either the kids know that he likes to play with light sources or believe him to be perpetually lost.). Opa received a travel poker set (After he opened this gift, he turned to Kevin and said with a smile, “Don’t your kids know I’m a preacher?!”). Mom found herself wearing a new gaudy red necklace (You have to know Mom to know how funny this gift actually is; she is not a “bling bling” kind of person.), and Dad ended up with a magnetic sculpture for his desk.
I felt that I had already been gifted multiple times in one evening, and I wondered what beautiful moments awaited me the next day. My appetite had most certainly been whetted by this Christmas Eve experience. My son had uttered a complete, absolutely delighted sentence, motivated by excitement over a well chosen gift, and my daughters had experienced what I wanted most for them this Christmas—the understanding that it truly is more blessed to give than to receive.
