Gifts of the Season

It's still 15 days before Christmas, but they are passing fast. I need to take Jenny's gifts to the PO to mail. Then we'll be with Joy's bunch over Christmas itself, and Lora and Andrew will be in town when we return. It will be busy, and fun. A good time to enjoy family.

But hopefully a time to be reaching out to others, as well. I've been reminded many times this season of the need for reaching beyond myself. One son-in-law has been blogging about giving to others. My delivery man yesterday is facing layoff next week. Our weather has been SUPER cold, and there are many homeless in our valley.



One thing that has taken me outside my neat and tidy plans was a request for sugar cut-out cookies for a party this year. I don't know when I've made the cut-outs! I use the recipe year long, but usually just roll them in granular sugar, or maybe ice the circle. But strictly round cookies! Fast and easy! So when my friend asked me to make cut-out cookies, I said yes. I HAD asked what she'd like me to do to help. So cut-outs it was!

I had baked most of the week, thinking I needed to bake for another occasion as well. Cookies everywhere. When I showered I could smell it. Even smelled it on Larry when I kissed him good by in the morning. The house smelled of cookies. It was good.

But the cut-outs had to be iced, and the week had been busy, making the icing the last project to get done. When I got home Friday, I had to get started, and was icing when Larry got home from work. He looks forward to a night in front of the TV ("Monk" finale!) and a total veg-out. So he kept teasing and hinting about downstairs TV, but these had to all be done by noon Saturday.

Finally, he offered, "they would get done faster if I helped...." to which I replied, "yep, they would!" We iced together till about 9 pm, then again 8 to 11 on Saturday. The most fun I've had for weeks! Doing something together! We talked, teased, listened, shared. Nothing too serious to detract attention from the issue at hand. No football games in the background. No lab experiment to think about. Just icing on the hands. How do I put on the sprinkles? What do you think of this color? How shall we decorate the angels? We had a great time together.

I even CHOSE cut-outs when I needed a dessert for the next Christmas party, and he readily helped me when he walked in the door from work, taking the left-overs to a work Christmas dinner today. I didn't get any more original with decorating than we'd already done, but good responses and good taste, made it an easy repeat.

Happy times, Everyone! If Christmas is about giving, it should include more than what we can buy, or even what we can make. It should include giving our time. And if giving is better than receiving -- which we all know is true -- it's more about listening than telling. We have wonderful parents always eager to hear how all the kids are doing. They keep up by whatever means possible. A brother-in-law will grab his phone and call one of my daughters at the most unexpected times. He teases, but he listens.

Love. A gift received, that keeps on giving.