These are a few of my favorite things.

So, as much as we all know that Christmas is for kids, I think that this is also a true statement: No one likes to get nothing for Christmas.  Which is another way of saying we all still want presents.  Even if we are what we once considered too old to worry what is wrapped under the tree bearing our name.

I'll admit it. I like presents.  Even if you know what you are getting, you still get a little giddy over opening a box wrapped in paper and ribbon (or no ribbon if you live at my house. Long story.)  So, I thought about how this year's presents stacked up with the rest of the Christmases I've experienced (eh, pretty good), which in turn made me want to write about the best Christmas presents I've ever received.  I can think of three.

The first one is a doll.  I can't remember which year it was, but she came with a brown wooden high chair that Amy and I were supposed to share.  She had long brown hair and blue eyes and a red dress.  I loved combing her hair.  She wasn't exactly a baby doll, but she wasn't a grown up either.  I don't know that I played with her all that much, but I've always had her.  When I think of getting a doll for Christmas, she is the doll I remember.  When I think of playing with a doll's hair, it it always her hair.  As a matter of fact, she's in a box in the basement, so I'll take her picture.

Her hair is a little worse for wear, as she currently resides in a box.  But I still have her.

 

I really liked the high chair she came with as well.  I can't remember if Amy and I did well at sharing it.  Hmm.  Probably not.

The second thing is from when I was married.  A family member and I used to go to this Christmas show that went on each year at one of the local convention centers.  We perused a display that had a bracelet that I fell in love with, but I failed to talk myself into buying.  The family member was buying a few of the bracelets as gifts, and so, when they were opened a few weeks later on Christmas Eve, I was sad that I hadn't bought the one I'd loved.  In the meantime, I knew that Shane had bought me a strange present that was delivered in the mail a few days before Christmas.  I started to cry Christmas morning when I opened that present and nestled in the box was my bracelet.  I've worn it every day every minute ever since.  I'll sometimes go without my rings, but never without my bracelet.

It was the daisy motif that put me over the edge.  I'll never pass up a good daisy.

The third thing was also given to me by my husband.  And it also has a story that makes it meaningful.  I was never able to wear the cute earrings that other girls wore because I was allergic to anything other than gold.  I could get away with silver for a few hours, but anything more than that I would end up with infected earring holes.  But when I was 16, I was sitting in a Village Inn restaurant (in the smoking section, because "there were always hotter guys in the smoking section." Or so we thought.) and one of my friends boyfriends gave me one of his silver hoop earrings (how's that for gallantry, eh?) I put it in my ear, and it didn't make my ears infected, so I got 2 more (because no matter what, one earring hole never could tolerate anything).  I wore those same 3 earrings all through high school, through my time in college, after I got married, and through my whole married life until the Christmas I was pregnant with Ben (2005, if you want to get technical.)  That year, I asked Shane for a pair of diamond earrings.  I finally felt like I was a grown up, and could leave my rag-tag silver hoops in my past.  I've worn the beautiful earrings my sweet husband gave me ever since. 

See that one, twinkling in my ears? (Don't mind my fat "I'm 6 weeks from delivering" face. Ugh.)

So, what are your favorite gifts that you've recieved?  I'm not the only one who secretly loves presents, am I?