This year, I did pretty much what I pondered doing in last year’s thread. I suggested he make a list of people he wanted to buy gifts for. He did, and his list consisted of four of his school friends, his dad, my sister and her husband, their dog, and our two cats.
I have him cash, took him to a shopping center, and told him I’d meet back up with him in an hour. When we met, he showed me what he’d gotten for his dad, his aunt and his uncle, and I thought he had made very good choices – with no input from me whatsoever.
Lo and behold, this morning he had a gift for me, too! He’d gotten me a really nice-looking wrist watch. I was surprised and very pleased.
I think maybe we’ve turned the “It’s all about me” corner. (Although we have not turned the “Get up on Christmas morning at an ungodly hour” corner. )
I remember that thread from last year. Sounds like you have raised a very thoughtful young man. As far as not getting up at an ungodly hour on Christmas morning goes … I’m 31 and I still haven’t turned that corner!
One of our family’s Christmas memories is from the time our son was around 8 or 9 years old, and had made a special gift for his Mom in Cub Scouts. It was one of those little coupon books that the kids made, good for various household chores, with a blank space for them to fill in their name.
When his Mom opened the book on Christmas morning, it was full of pages like[ul]
[li] Sister 1 will vacuum the living room.[/li][li] Sister 2 will wash the dishes[/li][li] Dad will mow the lawn[/li][li] Son will give Mom hugs and kisses[/li][/ul]His sisters were ready to strangle him, they were so outraged. “You can’t give us away as presents!!!”
We were up at 2:00 a.m.! Well, we had a nap, and then woke up. So I got the turkey ready and we opened presents and had some Christmas, then went back to bed.
I am thrilled because my husband made me a stocking!!! I wasn’t expecting that.
Mini-Marli was up at 5 but was kind enough to let me and her dad sleep until 7:30. She made me a present this year; when I opened it I thought it was another piece of her abstract sculpture she’s always making in school (give the child some random pieces of plastic, cardboard, some paint, and a hot glue gun and she’s happy for hours) but she very patiently informed me I was holding it upside down and when it’s the right way up, it’s a ring holder!
Very clever of her; I’m always taking my rings off when I shower or wash dishes or whatever and we’ve already had a bit of drama wherein she knocked them off the bathroom counter into the clothes hamper and had to spend several minutes shaking out clothes to find them. My new ring holder is my favorite present.
Our son just turned 14, and surprised all of us by giving us each $20 in a card for Christmas. As this was a fair chunk of his birthday money from relatives, that was very thoughtful indeed.
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