It's get that gift time

Gifts, whether they be for a birthday, anniversary or Christmas, usually mean much more to the giver than to the receiver.

As the retailers tell us that time is running out to purchase our gifts, you know their ploy, "it's so-and-so many shopping days to Christmas" (aren't ALL days shopping days now?), together with the constant advertising in the media, I guess the usual panic of, "what are we going to get Uncle Jim", or "can you remember what Aunt Mable got us last year?"

I always enjoy the surprises I received from our family in Norfolk, England. Sarah always plans early and enjoys choosing original gifts, quite a few of which have travelled with us to North Carolina, via Spain! In fact already today I have used two gifts received from them in previous years.

Stuart, a typical man, leaves everything to Leslie. She is okay with that(?) as she, too enjoys surprises and takes immense pleasure in choosing gifts. I am, I suppose, a big let down for her expertise in this area as I am a simple man who enjoys simple things, and am happy for them to buy me magazine subscriptions. By this I have a surprise gift every month when our mail-man (oops!, I mean letter-carrier) delivers a copy of a favorite magazine.

Have we done our gift shopping yet? Oh, yes, gift-wrapped, packaged and shipped. Well, almost. Gail, together with a team from our church, will shortly be shopping for Christmas "boxes" for some of our homeless friends and my goodness, is she excited about that? You bet!