G is for Giving

I love gifts. I think a lot of folks out there do, but for me - it's probably one of my love languages. I don't know for sure because whenever I take that test - I come up with about three different results that all weigh out equally.

When I say that I love gifts - they don't have to be expensive things. One of my favorite gifts of all time was a Christmas gift John gave me a few years ago. He gave me what was called "The 12 months of Christmas" - where I opened a gift on a certain day each month and it was a coupon for something. It might have been a date night, or a week of no laundry duty, a week of no kitchen duty... or anything in between. But it was one of the most thoughtful gifts I'd ever gotten.

As much as I love getting gifts - I get even MORE excited about giving gifts. I know this will be a problem in future years because the boys will learn my weakness and probably use it to their advantage. HA! I am the girl that takes forever to shop for a gift - but as soon as I find that perfect item for someone... I can't wait until the minute they get it. I want to give it to them instantly. I ALWAYS ask John if I can give him his gifts early. He never lets me... but I count down the minutes until I can see his face when he opens that gift.

I'm not that great at finding the good stuff for people - some folks out there have a knack for finding thoughtful items and are so much better at coming up with ideas... but I've got the market on being excited to give.

This extends outside of my family too - I would love nothing more than to bake a big bunch of goodies and leave them for all the neighbors. It's hard to do things like that these days because you can't be too careful with all the sickos out there. I hate that, because they take some of the simplicity and beauty out of being around people.

That goes for John and the kids though - or my family... I love spending time creating something yummy to share with them. It makes me happy to see them enjoy such things... cookies, brownies, cakes... candy... or even just dinner. It's hard right now because my time is limited to do such things, but as the boys get older - I can't wait to make homemade meals from scratch that will warm their hearts, minds, and souls when they get home from school.

My gift to them will be a full belly each night so they can relax and get ready for the next day. I try to do it as much as possible right now, but "quick" is the order of the day right now because they need constant attention and supervision.

I hope that when they grow up - they'll be a mixture of being great gift givers. Thoughtful gift givers like their Daddy, and take a love for gifting things that can't be bought as well. If I can raise them to understand that the women in their lives will melt if they did a load of laundry or cleaned the kitchen every once in a while. They thankfully will grow up watching their Dad do those very things, and I can only hope that it passes on to them.

For now, the one gift I'm so excited to receive in the future is for those cute little faces to look up at me and say: "I love you Mommy." I can't imagine any purchased gift that would top that.