We call it Kris Kringle - a lot of offices do it here. One gift that re-appeared 6 years running at my first job was a 3-pak of edible panties - no one wanted to take them home - til the 6th year.
Christmas lists, by removing the element of surprise, take a lot of the joy from Christmas - like the fun of watching face muscles strain, as people struggle to smile and conceal their disappointment. :wink:
This Christmas I really am wishing for something special. Usually I don't wish at all, just sit back and see what people give me. But this year, I'm crossing my fingers, being very good, writing long letters to Santa Claus--the letters are long, begging "please, please, please"--but there is only one wish.
It all started when I was rather young, about 13, when my parents decided to divorce. My mother went on single, but my father remarried. My stepmother did not take kindly to my father's three daughters--as a result, we were hardly able to have a private conversation with him. Their marriage lasted for years....and years....and years....and years....and we girls were really just outsiders.
When Daddy got older, and I saw that he was getting forgetful and not able to remember as well, I decided to come home and live nearby to make sure that he was taken care of, and to tend to my stepmother as well, though there was not the love there because she had not allowed it to grow. I sold my furniture, sold a lot of my personal things or gave them away, gave notice to my landlord, who promptly rented my apartment for the next month, and was all but on my way, when the telephone rang, and I was told that my father had passed away.
When my father's will was read, we discovered that my father, who had been very religious, had given all of his property to his church in an irrevocable trust. We girls were left with very little. And my stepmother had run up credit card liens against the house as well, so that in the process of paying them off, the remainder monies coming to the children were diminished.
It was not the financial loss that bothered me, so much as the fact that my grandmother had originally bought the property--three lots on the edge of a medium-sized midwestern town--and her purpose was not only to have land for herself, but for her grandchildren. She had helped to dig--by hand--the basement for her house, had almost single-handedly shingled her own roof. One of the three lots she gave to my father, who built a small home there where I was born in my parents' four poster bed.
Now the land and the home that my grandmother had worked so hard for, and the place that most of us were born, was lost to all of us.
On November 1, this year, my stepmother passed away. Our family property was taken over by the church it was donated to, and seemingly lost to us forever.
Last week, my youngest sister phoned me. "Do you want to come home and live in grandma's house?" she asked. "How would I do that, since we don't own it?" I said. "I'm going to try to buy it back for us," she explained. "But I don't want to live there since I am comfortable where I am, and I thought that you might want to come home, be nearer to us. You could pay me rent and have an equity in the house." My heart soared.
I cannot tell you how much it would mean to me to go back to the place of my birth, to help redeem our family property, even if it means paying for it all over again, for it has been in our family for close to 80 years now--what it would mean to keep the property not only for ourselves, but for our nieces, nephews and the grands--passing it down through the generations.
I am waiting now to hear what my sister finds about ways and means of doing this. Waiting and praying, and petitioning Santa,
"Please, please, Santa, Please? I've been a VERY good girl!"
i'm still thinking about that Christmas exchange that turned me into a secret gift opener. One of the fellows, newly married, there with his wife, gave me a tiny, ruffled, pink babydoll pj set ! it was a truly peculiar moment. what was he thinking!?
Estrella - that sounds like a marvellous Christmas gift. Drucken die Daume for you for good luck.
Thanks, ehbeth:
I love that you gave me a German good wish--
I just looked up "Drucken die Daume" on a translator, and it told me "the thumb's print." Would you mind explaining this idiomatic expression?
It means to press your right thumb against the right thumb of the person you're wishing good luck to - a variation of crossing your fingers, i think - i guess i'll have to do some research. It's one of those i grew up with.
I GOT A SILVER TREE WITH COLORED LIGHTS!!! WOOHOO
Thanks to JerryR
Quinn? What do you mean??
Estrella -- Sounds a lot like a story of woe from my family, though luckily the church wasn't involved. How wonderful if you and your sister can pull it off.
My brother and I ended up doing a similar thing with a family property... not so old, but with lots of memories. It has been wonderful. Three other sisters opted out, but we did it between us.
ehBeth wrote:It means to press your right thumb against the right thumb of the person you're wishing good luck to - a variation of crossing your fingers, i think - i guess i'll have to do some research. It's one of those i grew up with.
Beth, it is the equivalent to crossing your fingers. It's 'pressing your thumbs'. You make a fist with your thumbs inside and press your thumbs. Hu, sounds strange - I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.
My favourite Christmas present this year will be seeing my brother again after two years. He lives near Atlanta. He and his family usually visit my sister and myself in Germany from Dec. 27 to 30. My husband and I spent last Christmas in Sweden with my in-laws so I missed seeing my brother. This year they will all be in Germany - my brother and his family and my mother and father-in-law. I am really looking forward to it!
Thanks, ehbeth and urs53, it now makes sense. I am now crossing my fingers, wishing on stars, praying, writing letters to Santa and doing the thumb thing, Drucken die Daume, both by myself and with every one of my friends who comes along! LOL!
Piffka, that's so encouraging to know someone else has done something similar. I hope that Judie finds a way to do this. My friend, an attorney just sent me a fax asking me if I need help with this, so I am going to ask him about the ramifications, especially since Judie's husband has just been found to have colon cancer--I am afraid with all the additional stress she is under she is going to give up on the property! Which would mean that I would be the only other sister to do something about it.
I wish, I wish, upon a star....
Earlier I had said that my mother had one of those silver Christmas trees, and I believe it was JD who remembered the colored lights...well, thats all JerryR needed...
Seems he found one...
and thought it would look perfect in my house.
And its fiber optic...really wild.
So, I guess I got a silver tree...lol
sooooo silly
Oooooooooohhhhh, Cass, that's so cool!
we want someone to make a donation in our name to NPR.
hehehehehe
it is cool..aint it?
freaky..but cool
dontations are a nice thought, very giving thought for the right time of year
Oh, I like the donation to NPR thought. I could not exist without NPR!
I feel such guilt. I really can't affard to pledge to NPR, this is a good way to go. I'd volunteer time, but I can't figure out how. I tried to volunteer at the local public TV station, but we never figured out a shift for me to work.
