It was hard work preparing for Christmas this year. I wrote a list of presents I needed to buy. Luckily we do the ‘kris kringle’ present exchange now in our family, so I only had to buy one present for dad, although of course I bought one for Steve too. I wrote a list of other people to buy presents for. Heidi, who is the girls’ nanny – her present was a dash to the Body Shop on Thursday. I ran because I had a meeting I needed to be back in the office for, and had been flat out all week at work. I wrapped it before hopping on my bike to ride home on Heidi’s last day for the year.
Dad is impossible to buy for. All he wants is a holiday at the beach with the family and we had arranged that for his birthday. I ended up getting him Ahn Do’s memoir – a great read – and a goat for a family in need from Care Australia. I was reasonable happy with that.
Buying presents for the girls was the most fun. What would they really enjoy, and hopefully be of educational value? I settled on some crayons for Rhea ($1 from Hot Dollar – love that name) and a second-hand small football for Lara, also $1. We also planned to give them a pillow-case full of presents from Santa. We didn’t have to labour the ‘Santa’ angle: after all, the girls are only 18 months old, but Steve and I both have good memories of our childhood Christmases ushered in by be-pillowed offerings at the foot of our beds. Christmas trees smelling of pine needles, summer heat and full pillowcases are for me the scents, feelings and sights of my childhood Christmases.
We wrapped our pillowcase offerings in newspaper last night: lego ($30 from Big W) and a music box that is already in their toy collection, added because I needed something for Lara’s pillowcase to match the lego in Rhea’s and this was nice and bulky. To this we added a xylophone each (second-hand from my old school fete: a total of $2). This was enough stimulation and commercialisation for two little girls. We added a punnet of blueberries each and some home-made biscotti so that they received their favourite food as well.
We took out the presents from the pillowcases on our bed after the girls’ morning breastfeed. Their reaction was more interest than excitement, but Lara polished off her blueberries in minutes and soon we had squashed blueberries, biscuits and lego scattered throughout the bed.
The girls are well-loved and their grandparents, aunts and uncles, grand-friends, nanny and Godparents are generous as well as attached to them. They received other presents today for Christmas as well as ours, though I don’t think they were given more presents than they can appreciate. Complementing this generosity, I’d like to continue the $2, thoughtful but sometimes second-hand presents for them on these special occasions, with little packages of indulgent favourite foods. There is enough ‘stuff’ in the world without everything needing to be new.
