Skip to main content

The Greatest Gift

There have just been a few gift requests I can remember making in adulthood—I asked for a telescope for my birthday one year, and last year I asked for a bottle of Chanel and a camera for Christmas. I remember getting the telescope which is now in the trash, and although I didn't get the perfume or camera, I bought those things for myself in January.

I just don't think in terms of what I might want as a gift. That could mean that I buy what I want when I want it—like the perfume and the camera—or that could mean I'm not a big shopper. Or maybe it's a combination of two things. This year when No. 1 asked what I wanted for Christmas, I sent her a link to boots I think I might need this winter while walking the dog out there in the big winter wonder land, and I pointed her to Crabtree & Evelyn's La Source body wash. I don't know what's in the stuff, but I'm hooked. Other than that, I don't want or need or have expectations for anything.

Even my sisters are considering a scaled back gift exchange this year. For a long time, we've drawn names, but this time they're thinking about drawing the name of an entire family unit, cutting down on gifts. This whole shift in how we celebrate Christmas inspired today's column for Small Town Newspaper.

Today, I received two phone calls, one Facebook message, one Open Salon comment and one face-to-face exchange thanking me for this column. I think I've struck a nerve here. And I think there are a lot of people out there who are tired of things.

I'll admit I would love a bottle of La Source for Christmas, but finding it under the tree won't make or break the holiday.
Labels:

Comments

dive said…
I think you'll get a gallon of la Source for Christmas, Robyn.
I loved your newspaper piece. It made this old Scrooge come over all It's A Wonderful Life.
3:11 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Right Brain Dominant

I am reading A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future , by Daniel H. Pink. I wouldn't have chosen this book had I been book hunting because I lean toward fiction—it was a gift from someone who, like me, is right-brain dominate. I haven't gotten very far, just far enough to learn that in Hippocrates' day, the left side of the brain was considered the true source of thought, the thing that separated us from the animals and made us human. It was the source of reason and logic. The right side was considered a useless left over, a parasite. Now we know that both sides of our brains are equally important and equally involved in our daily thoughts and functions. But some of us do seem to be governed by one side more strongly than the other. Me, sometimes I think the left side of my brain has completely atrophied, that the right side governs everything. But I am learning that I don't give that other side enough credit, that logical mathy side. As I read on ab...
12 comments
Read more

Ish People

Tell an Ish person to show up around 9 a.m., and you'll see them somewhere around 9 a.m. Tell them to show up at 9ish, and you'll see them anywhere from 9:05 to 9:20. You have given them license to dilly dally, and who wouldn't take advantage of that? The other night at the big shindig dinner party, one of the drummers said the rehearsal the next morning would begin at 9ish. "I am an ish person," he says. Immediately the clanker goes off in my head--oh, good, I thought. I can deliver my daughter a little late. No Ish person is early, so if you say 9ish, that does not mean give or take 5, 10, 15 minutes. It's exclusively a taking phrase. Take an extra 10 minutes to drink your cup of coffee. We won't mind. We're Ish people. Sunday's rehearsal started at 2:00. Because it was conducted by the same people who conducted the Saturday rehearsal, my understanding was 2-ISH. My daughter is worse than I am about taking liberties with Ish time frames, so she d...
14 comments
Read more

Happy Birthday To...

Pope Leo IX (the Pope) JCF Bach (German composer) Jane Russell (of Gentlemen Prefer Blonds fame) Daniel Carter Beard (founder of the Boy Scouts of America) Jean-Paul Sartre (French philosopher) Maureen Stapleton (Academy Award winning actress) Mariette Hartley (who?) Prince William of Wales (the prince) but most importantly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 45 years ago today, I was born in Alabama in a small town on the banks of the Tennessee River. Yesterday, someone asked me if my family has any birthday traditions. The answer is no. My family never cared very much, but I do remember a few birthday highlights. I was given a birthday party in the back yard when I was ten years old. Two years later, my sister got married on my birthday, so I was just a bit overlooked, although I did get a stuffed animal--it was a white Yorkshire terrier with an AM radio in its stomach. When I turned 20, a different sister took me to an outdoor performance of Dvorak's New World Sympho...
16 comments
Read more