Author: Tammy

The Season of Gift Giving…or Re-Gifting?

Alright, I’m gonna beg you for comments at the end of the post today.  To show you my appreciation of such, I will reward one of you, randomly selected of course, with a little something to say, “Thanks for the Laugh!” After reading through the post, please tell me your comment to the question I will ask at the bottom.  All comments must be received by Wednesday, December 14th at midnight.  On Thursday, December 15th, I’ll post the winner.  Read on…

How many of you have ever received a gift that you know was re-gifted?  How many of you ever re-gifted an item yourself?  Don’t fret, I’m not here to scold you for doing so.  I, too, in fact have re-gifted a time or two especially when I have received a gift I know someone else could use or would use more than I would.

Though, I have to admit, I’m not particularly fond of the whole re-gifting thing because of my childhood experience at my grandmother’s house on Christmas day every year.  My Dad’s “parents” were very well off.  There were two sons and three grandchildren.  I was the oldest and the only girl.  Every Christmas that I can remember (which if you know me, that will be pretty far back) I would receive one or two gifts from my Dad’s parents, while the two boys would have what seemed like mountains of gifts. My Mom still remembers this, too, so I promise I’m not making this up!  As we all began to open gifts, my grandmother would dictate how we would open the gifts each year.  Always the two boys went first, “They are young, you understand, and it’s not fair to make them wait.”  Ehem…I’m young, too, and I was never allowed to bring anything from home that I received that morning so I would have something to play with.  My Dad would always say, “there will be plenty of goodies at Ma’s so you don’t need to drag along more for us to lug back home.”

But you see, there was a strong contrast in what my Dad always thought would happen and what would actually happen.  The boys (five and 9 years younger than I was) always received boxes upon boxes of brand new items.  I received two boxes.  The difference between mine and their gifts…mine were ALWAYS re-gifted items in at least one of the two boxes, but usually both.  None were ever age appropriate and rarely were they ever anything I could wear if it were clothes and never anything I could play with when I was young.

This went on even into my adulthood.  How about giving your grandma a pretty bowl that you know she will like as it’s HER taste (not yours) and then receive it back the next year.  No wait, it gets even better.  It was even in the same wrapping paper as she never really unwrapped it.  She just pulled the tape off the end and slid it sort of out and said how nice and slid it back in.  I received it the next year with a little extra tape on that end.  The “TO” and “FROM” were scribbled out and turned around to match to me and from her for this year.

Before you think I’m taking you down a depressed road, have no fear, I’m not.  I crack up when I talk about it now.  It has made me stop and be in thought of the receiver and determined to get an appropriate gift when I shop for someone to this day.  I’m going to make this a teachable moment for all you re-gifting fans!  No, really, this will turn out funny and you will go away with a lesson learned the hard way.  AND, you don’t even have to be the one that had to learn it the hard way!

First, though, I have to tell you a more funny story! You’re gonna love this!

A friend and I were talking this week about gifting, thrifting and re-gifting.  Then she told me a story that just, well, you know—“Tickled Me Pink”!

A few years ago, her dear friend’s parents bought a new home.  As a house warming gift, their realtor bought them a new picture for their home.  However, the lady of the home had never seen one of these photos before and apparently held it up the wrong way.  It was a long rectangular picture using items in nature to spell out their name.  I’m sure you have seen these as they are quite popular at the present time. She, of course, had no idea there were actually letters spelled out of the items in each section.  So, whether she held it vertically or horizontally she just saw wagon wheels, tree limbs, fence posts, etc. It seems she never actually held it up the correct way to see the letters.

A few months later, she gave the photo to her son as his church was doing an auction to raise money for a child/mission project.  She told him it was pretty, but just not her style and it was still brand new, maybe he could take it to the auction and someone would enjoy it.  So he did.  Well, the son, also was not aware of this new style of picture and took it to the church auction drop off site.

Fast forward a few weeks and the auction night was here.  The son went to the auction planning on enjoying the festivities and hoping to help out in some way for the mission.  A friend in the church came over and said, “Hey, you really need to come see this picture and I really think you need to bid on it as it has your name on it.”  This poor friend had no idea that he was talking to the person that had brought the picture to the auction!  The guy was now curious and went over to the photo he had dropped off from his mom.

Yep!  Right there in front of his face, was his last name spelled out among wagon wheels, fence posts, tree limbs and the like!  Someone doing the display for the auction knew this type of photo and had it set up properly.

You know what’s coming, don’t you!

Yes, he bid AND won that picture that night!  How could he not since it had his name all over it!

This story just cracked me up and I knew that I just had to share with you all this week.  Here’s how I would like to encourage you in this gift giving season, or shall I say re-gifting season.  If in fact you are going to re-gift, first and foremost, make sure this person isn’t the one that gave it to you in the first place!  C’mon–put a little thought into it!  Make sure the gift is age appropriate.  Don’t give your size 6 pre-teen, eight year old niece a granny Christmas sweater size XL.  SERIOUSLY!  And never, never re-use the gift tags. Really!  At least recycle Christmas cards and cut out a pretty part of a card and make a new tag.  Hey, at least the tag is new.  No wait, it’s re-gifted, too!

So, c’mon, all of you out there reading this blog this season, give me a story to chuckle with you and all my readers about your experience in re-gifting.  Whether you have re-gifted or have been the recipient of a re-gifted item, please add your comment below by Wednesday, December 14th at midnight.  On December 15th, I will randomly pick one of you to receive a $10.00 Target or Starbucks Gift Card (I will let you choose if you win!)  Because, every one of us could use a good laugh this season and who doesn’t like a Gift Card to HAVE to spend on ourselves!  Oh, and it will be brand new, I promise!

…and that’s all I have to say about that!

Tammy
It’s beginning to look at lot like CHRISTmas!

I SURVIVED IT! DID YOU?

As we planned and prepared for Thanksgiving at our house, we have added a new tradition to our weekend activities that may be described as more of an adventure each year.  What is it you ask?  It is the ever earlier Black Friday Mad-Dash!  It started two years ago by my daughter.  She is the ever searching, deal-making shopper if there ever was one.  Her dad and I are proud that she is frugal at her young age, but sometimes I tease her and say that she could get change from a penny!  That’s ok though.

But this annual Black Friday Extravaganza has become quite the production for us.  Two years ago, we didn’t venture out until about 9am.  We didn’t feel there was enough reason to get up super early on a day off to hunt for deals, most of which we didn’t need anyway.  Then we heard about the deals folks were getting.

Last year, everything changed!  The daughter lived on campus at the university near us as a resident director and it was her duty week.  She came home for dinner at the nursing home with us and the grandparents then went back to campus.  Later that day we joined dear friends to hang out with their family and extended family for the rest of the evening.  We left their home at about 11pm.  While hubby was driving I got a text from the daughter.  “When you going home?”

I replied, “On our way home now, what’s up?”

She then called, “Since it’s pouring down rain and snow, you wanna take me to the door at the mall so I can run into Old Navy, they are opening at midnight and have door buster deals?”

I’m thinking, hold up, you want to go shopping at midnight in the pouring rain and it’s freezing?  So, I  replied with what any wise, caring mom would say, “Sure, I’ll pick you up and take you, but dad said he ain’t goin’, he’s goin’ home to bed.”  And thus it began!

I dropped off the dad, picked up the daughter and took her to Old Navy.  I waited in the car and nearly frozen my assets off waiting.  Yes, nobody warned us the lines are loooonnnnggg and ssllllooooowww!

She finally comes out and has hit a second wind.  She smiles and shows me her “finds”.  I have to admit, she got great deals.  She then smiles and says, “Walmart opened at 1 AM and it’s 1:30 AM now, do you wanna drop me off there?” Grinning very, very, very big!

And so I do.

She came out a while later and broke into laughter telling me she is WAY past her bedtime and has just shooed an older Asian man from her stash in her cart!  I’m like – “Huh?”  She proceeded to tell me the story including the little head gestures of go away, go away and the words (?)…Nahnah  Nahnah!  I busted out laughing and asked her what language that was.  She laughed and said, “I wasn’t sure of his nationality and couldn’t think of an appropriate “no” that he would understand.  Yeah, I’m thinking now that’s it’s 2:45 AM, I’m getting a little punchy.”

Next, ToysRUs is opening in 10 minutes and she wanted to see about some games.  We went there and she is in and out pretty quick compared to the other stores.  However, we still have an hour and a half until the next store opens that she wanted to go to.  We’re kind of on a second wind, but realize it won’t last if we just sit and wait.  We decided to go to the only restaurant open to get some Sweet Tea for the caffeine.  It’s Ron’s place.  You know the one.  The one with the Golden M out front!  Sitting for a while, I believe this is when the punchy began to fully set in.  The daughter and I were talking and laughing and getting caffeinated. I’m telling her a story about something our dog did and for whatever reason I still don’t know I decided to tell her what the dog said.  Yes, you read that right.  I began to bark like our little four pound teacup yorkie.  Mmm-hmm, I was that punchy!  Hey c’mon now – it is now 4:30 AM after all.  I had been up since 7AM the day before to get the bird in the oven and all the other stuff prepped.

We were quite the troopers.  We got great deals for ourselves and others, too.  We finally came home at 3:30 PM.  Yep, you read that right!

Fast forward to Black Friday, 2011…

Daughter decided that this year Walmart will be opening at 10PM on Thanksgiving, then Target and the list goes on through the wee hours of the night/morning.  So we scour the ads to see if there is anything that we are still looking for.  We make a list of store, time and what we want there.  Hubby has decided that he doesn’t want to be left out this year and says he’s in!  Daughter’s co-worker that joined us for Thanksgiving lunch says she’s going just to see the daughter in action!

It’s 10 PM and we leave for Walmart.  We let all the folks that are there for the big electronics get there first as they want to wait outside in line for the doors to open, then mad dash into the store to stand in line until the official release at midnight for certain door busters.  Our Walmart’s parking is ridiculous with a capital R.  Not only is this the Black Friday rush, they are remodeling and changing the entire store and have most of the parking lot blocked off with storage containers with their “stuff”.  There were cars all over and even across the street!  Wow!

We couldn’t get a cart.  The daughter was scooping up $1.96 DVD’s and soon we both have our arms full.  I volunteered to go over to a shelf nearby and let them both build their stacks and shop with free arms.   Within a few minutes, two ladies came by.  I’m looking the other way and realized the stacks are moving. I quickly turned around and see that they are beginning to go through all the DVD’s.  I spout out loudly, “No, No, these are someone else’s, you can’t have these.”

The ladies give me a nasty look and say, “Geez, sarr–rie.”  I now am “tickled pink” and began to laugh out loud as I realized that this event happened at about this time last year and at this same Walmart!  I spoke the same language as the two ladies, so it was not necessary to use shooing gestures and a foreign language–Nahnah Nahnah!  Hehe!

We continued on our plan of attack.  We did have to visit Ron’s place again for some sustenance and more Sweet Tea as we wait for our next stop to open at 6 AM.  Wait, can you actually consider the food we ate at Ron’s as sustenance.  Anyway, of course there was an outburst of laughter between the daughter and I that caused the sweet lady behind us to say to her son, “Oh, they are getting punchy!  They’re giddy!”  Ya think?!

We finally complete our list.  We got everything we were looking for and a little more.  We head home and arrive at 10AM.  Yes, we had been shopping for 12 crazy hours!  We all three crashed for a few hours nap.  When we woke up, the daughter started comparing prices and selections, etc.  She realized she could have gotten a better deal on a couple DVD’s between stores.  So, at 5:30 PM we head back out to make switches and buy other stuff that went on sale later if it was left.

When all was said and done, we arrived home at 9:30 PM.  We all collapsed in the living room, watched some tv and totally vegged-out.  I do believe we made it only to about 11 PM if that!

So, tell me…did you have a Black Friday Extravaganza of your own?  Did you go longer than you thought?  We didn’t encounter any mean, pepper-spraying shoppers – did you?

For us, we will continue to save some of our shopping for the Black Friday Shopping Party.  It has become part of our Thanksgiving Weekend-Christmas Holiday traditions.  And isn’t that what is important these days? Building joyful memories and traditions with people we love the most. We need to have great memories and do things that bring us joy.  As for me and my family, we will probably be hitting Ron’s place somewhere between 3 AM and 5 AM on Black Friday for some Sweet Tea caffeine and side splitting laughter!

…and that’s all I have to say about that!

Please leave me a comment or two below about your Black Friday Extravaganza!  I’d love to hear all about it!

Tammy

Something to Ponder from my Guest Today!

As we all prepare to gather around tables across America tomorrow, I want to stop and pray for each and everyone of you and tell you how thankful I am for you.  I am grateful for all of you who have become my followers and I have loved the responses you have sent to me privately or have commented on the bottom of blogposts.  Besides expressing my thankfulness for you, I pray that you will all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day surrounded by people you love.  I will be cooking for my family and guests at noon.  I will then cook again and take food to our three parents in the nursing home for dinner.  It will be a full day surrounded by family and friends.  

I will be back soon with some fun stories about Black Friday…last year and the ones to come starting midnight on Thursday.  Oh yeah! I’m going with our daughter again this year!
I’ll tell more later! But until then…

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

And now…please enjoy my blog visit from my sweet friend, Jessica, from Texas.  I met her at my conference this summer.  I just love this girl!  She is writing some cool apps for kids. Her first one is “The Sounds of the Night”. I love it!  She has another one coming out really soon.  I can’t wait!

So without further ado, here’s Jessica…



Home
By: Jessica Kirkland



The bright yellow leaves swirled around as I set my pace. My feet began to move swiftly. I was running for the first time in many years. I had been building up to this run, walking 3-5 miles a day in hopes of running just one solitary mile. Despite the wind in my hair and the beauty of fall, I felt the tingling of my abdomen.


Dead nerves and scars.

The result of a triplet pregnancy and multiple surgeries before and after. It’s funny to not feel a piece of you that you always thought you’d have. It’s an odd sensation to feel your nerves try to come alive, only to have them go silent again. I’ve learned that there are two types of hurting people in this life:

Those who are numb, but desperately want to feel again. Those men and women who long to be whole on this side of Heaven. And those whose pain is so great, they long for numbness. They chase it and drown it with destructive behaviors and desperate thoughts. Those who have lost hard, felt unimaginable pain, and pray to be swept away to Jesus. 

I had picked a marker, a starting line and a finish line. 

I reached my designated finish line, but it wasn’t the real one. It was simply the minimal distance I told myself I could go.  

So, I kept running.

The path ahead was steep, but beautiful. I have never been much of a runner. Always mile-relay, the one-lap kind of girl, but never the long-distance track star. Always the girl who got to hand the baton off to someone who could finish faster and stronger. Someone with more courage and perseverance. My breathing labored as I reached the pinnacle of the hill. Yet, I was still not home. 

Life is a gift. For it is God who “gives breath and life and all things” according to Acts 17:25. We cannot chase yesterday and still move forward to tomorrow. Through numbness and pain, we can still see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13)

believe. know that abundant life is within your grasp. It might be a steep climb, but keep going. Keep running to the pinnacle.

Two more sharp turns.

I prayed I could do it, despite the tingling and the lack of breath.

As the bright yellow leaves swirled around, I kept my pace. My feet moved slower, but I was still running. For the first time, in a very long time, my lips curled into a smile. 

I saw home. I saw the real finish line.

It stood cloaked in falling leaves and hovering trees. The driveway filled with a big blue suburban whose insides were cloaked in Kindergarten jackets, Happy meal wrappers, and car seats. 

My toes touched cement and I gave God glory; for breath and life and all things. 

I was home.



Bio:

Jessica Kirkland lives in Southeast Texas with her husband, Robb, and five-year-old triplets. She is the Founder of http://www.christianapps4kids.com, where she writes and creates interactive book apps that are Christ-centered. Jessica is an author and speaker whose greatest passion in life is to see young families grow deeper in their walk with God. When she isn’t writing, playing with her kids, or chasing her rebellious dog through the neighborhood, you can find her blogging on her personal blog Jessie’s House found at http://www.jessicakirkland.com









I hope you all enjoyed this blog visit.  Please check out her blog, listed above.  Also, for all my friends who are living Gluten-Free, you’ll want to read all about Jessica’s trials and triumphs on her Gluten experiences.

Blessings to you all!

…and that’s all I have to say about that!

Tammy