Christmas Gift

Gift Ideas- Some years I have it all planned out what I am going to get my wife for Christmas and yet other years I struggle.  This year I really didn’t have a great idea going for me when she suggest that we can the idea of getting each other gifts.  She suggested that instead of spending a few hundred on each other for this year lets grab a couple tags off of donation tree’s and spend that same money on this instead.  Well it was an interesting idea I decided so I went along with it.

We went down to the city Christmas tree where the local women’s shelter and food bank post tags with different wish lists for families.  We ended up grabbing 4 tags I think.  One of the tags was for a boy who wants cloths (size 8-10), a school backpack with school supplies, and a hoola-hoop.  Instantly it broke my heart to picture a kid going to school in 3^rd grade without a backpack or the correct school supplies. 

I remember being in 3^rd grade when my father got laid off and was unemployed for the better part of a year.  (He was never totally unemployed, he always worked what ever job he could find but it never was much pay during that year) I also remember going to the bus stop with my buddies and they where making fun of me because I was wearing the K-mart blue light special shirt while they where in the cool Nike shirt or what ever the name brand was that week.

So my wife and I started to go shopping for this boy the other day.  We went to the large Wally-came-apart story and started looking at the cloths.  Yes for about $25 dollars it seemed like we could get about 113 pieces of clothing.  But to me it seemed to close to what I was going through at 3^rd grade.  I finally said enough and we left our cart and ran away.  I explained my issue with buying these second rate cloths for kids.  I know it is extremely materialistic of me but damn it 3^rd graders are ruff.

We went to a different store where $25 got us 2 shirts but they had the “correct names on them”.  I ended up not buying 113 pieces of clothing but I did throw the limits out the window and tried to get close to 113. 

I have to say I had more fun then I ever did shopping for my wife.  She got to shop for the little girl that she doesn’t have.