Opening Presents

27 Dec By

Yesterday, I reminded y’all that the Gentleman and I are not big on presents.  We actually did give each other 2-3 tiny gifts this year just to populate the tree and by tiny I mean that I got a bag of Goldfish crackers and some Pinot Noir.  Good pairing, no?  Anyway, one member of our family does get some loot from Santa every year and that’s our four-legged kiddo, Violet.  Violet herself was a Christmas present, adopted from our local shelter on 12/23/10, so the holiday is also her Forever Home Day. Happy 2 years in the House of Crazy, Violet!

This year, in a moment of temporary insanity, I actually WRAPPED the CAT’s presents, complete with ribbons (yes, the kind cats can choke on) and labels.  Violet is an addict, so most of these wrapped gifts contained her drug of choice, catnip.  As a result, Violet had a grand time seeking out which packages were hers and pulling them open under the tree.

 

 

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Christmas Trip 2012

25 Dec By

The Gentleman and I are not big on gifts as mentioned here.  Exchanging Christmas gifts, for us, feels like trading fifty dollar bills and we’re a bit anti-consumerist so instead of showering our loved ones with more possessions, we prefer to shoot out a few Christmas cards (see below) and donate the money we’d spend on gifts to a worthy cause.  This year we gave our Christmas funds to the Angel Tree and Salvation Army.

 

Still, it’s nice to do something special with the holidays, so it’s become our tradition to take a trip during our time off.  This year, we got more time off than usual thanks to the weekend, so we island hopped over to Kauai.  Y’all, this quiet, unplanned trip was all I needed for Christmas: quality time with the husband and soaking in God’s creation.  Amazing.  Here are some pictures from the adventure:

Hawaii is the land of the rainbows.  Kauai got the memo and gave us light shows at Waimea Canyon and the Na Pali Coast.

Kayaking along the streams in Hanalei.

The destination for our kayak trip.

We boated down the Na Pali coast.  We were lucky to get a “low” surf day.  Note to travelers: Kauai in winter is not all sunshine and sparkles.  Actually, nowhere in Hawaii is.  We get some crazy big surf, battering winds and rain storms, so keep that in mind for vacation planning :) .

The weather in winter may not be fantastic, but it’s whale season!  We saw dozens of Humpbacks while on our boat trip, though not very many close up.  It’s still early in the season, though and I can’t wait to hit up Maui in February to see some more!

Strong recommend for touring the Na Pali coast, by the way.  Miles and miles of movie-set-looking coastline.

The sun played some cool tricks for us on the way back to harbor.

No photoshop here.  That IS a rainbow surrounding the setting sun.

Sunset as we pulled back in to harbor.

We flew back to Oahu on Christmas Eve and enjoyed great entertainment on Christmas morning…from our cat.  More on her antics tomorrow.

Mele Kalikimaka, Y’all!

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Gift Giving

4 May By

Yesterday, I shared some recent wonderful gifts I’ve received.  The gifts were heart-felt tokens from people I cherish and they were presented not in response to a holiday or occasion, but “just because”.  I love them and they got me thinking again (uh oh) about this whole concept of gift giving.

I wondered… if greeting card companies and popular retailers weren’t allowed to run ad campaigns that focus on our need to have things and the requirement that we give them at various occasions, what kind of amazing gifts we could begin to give one another?

As a general rule, I’m not too big on gifts, and I know that’s usually off-putting to people.  Our culture is full of gift-giving opportunities and the act has become very much part of our vocabulary.  Generosity and sharing should certainly be part of our vocabulary and when gifts flow from true generosity and a sharing nature, I’m all for ‘em.

Unfortunately, though, our gifting vocabulary includes other phrases, like “do we have to do a gift?” and “should I send her something?” and “We gave him a gift and he didn’t give us one” and “I think I need to spend more than $50 since we’re really close” and “For Christmas I NEED a new pair of boots”.

These phrases add unsavory elements to the concept of gift-giving: obligation, habit, consumerism, selfishness, a monetization of relationships.  We find ourselves believing that certain occasions or people require gifts and that those gifts must be of a certain price.  We find ourselves expecting reciprocation from the people we give gifts to.  Gift-giving becomes a chore, a meaningless reflexive action.

Let me be clear:  I think gift-giving is a sublime practice that should continue, but I also think our culture has defiled it to a degree and where I see that happening, I choose not to participate as a gift recipient.

For example, the Gentleman and I didn’t give each other Christmas presents this year because we both have far too many things.  The one thing we truly don’t have enough of is time together, so rather than spend precious time buying useless crap, we didn’t shop…for anyone…and enjoyed a quiet, present-less holiday together. We also chose not to register for wedding gifts because we’ve both lived on our own for so long that we truly didn’t need anything else and we felt like relieving our friends and families from the obligation to shop for us.

I’ve been the recipient of many thoughtful, non-obligatory gifts in my life and I’m profoundly grateful for each of them – gifts like the ones I blogged about yesterday..  And, I hope I’ve given quite a few heart-felt gifts as well and will continue to give them – whether it’s a holiday or not.

 

 

 

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Gifts

3 May By

I’ve received some lovely gifts this week.  I wanted to share them with you.  I’ve also written a little perspective on gift-giving and I’ll share it with you tomorrow.

I’ve been spending time over the past year or so with some amazing women of God and at our recent meeting, one of these awesome ladies gave us each the most wonderfully plump and buttery yellow rose.  It’s sitting on my desk among other favorite things.

The next day, The Gentleman had two dozen of the most fragrant and striking roses delivered to our home for me.  He’s a great husband.

And then my parents drove down to have lunch with us and brought an amazing bouquet of flowers picked from their yard.  This bouquet is made extra special by the Siberian Irises which were cultivated from “parent” plants my maternal great-grandmother grew.

They also brought a gift my Dad’s been carefully working on for some time.  This table is a replica of one his father made and he’s made one for each of us kiddos for our wedding present.

This table sports an awesome inscription on the back of one of the drawers:  The date my Grandfather made the original, and the date my Dad made ours. My Grandfather made the top inscription on the original piece.  There is special sentiment here as my paternal grandparents died when my father was young and I never knew them.  It’s a blessing when I see pieces of their lives and can learn about them.

I love these gifts.  Of course there’s a gift I love more:  the gift-givers themselves.

 

 

 

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