The Love Behind the Gift

We had Christmas today with our two sons and their kids. The daughter comes next week. With adult children who don't live nearby, it's sometimes hard to get everybody's schedules arranged to have them all home at once. That's what this mama would like best. That's the way it was when they were little. All together. But kids grow up and have their own families. Their spouses have family to celebrate with too. I'm just glad I get to see the grandkids and my kids and my in-law kids too.


That's one of the best things about Christmas for me. Family. And I had plenty of family today even if all the kids didn't get to be there. My house was Santa Claus avenue today. Lots of presents for the little ones and the big kids too. Now boxes are stacked everywhere. Empty boxes waiting to be recycled and stored for another gift or ready for the trash bin along with those tough plastic ties they use to imprison toys in impossible plastic packaging. They must be afraid those toys are going to come to life like in Toy Story and revolt or something. Then there are the remnants of ribbons and torn bits of paper that look like confetti rained down on the floor not to mention the crumbs of cake and sticky spots of spilled drinks here and there. In other words it looks like we've had a family Christmas party.

And since we're talking about boxes - we sort of were, anyway - I want to share with you another of my favorite gift answers for my giveaway. In the giveaway the reader is entered in an extra drawing just by naming a favorite gift or Christmas memory. I shared one story last Thursday about a family who lost all their presents on Christmas Eve but still managed to have a good Christmas. This week's story is different. A smiling fun memory about a grandmother.


My reader says her grandmother always made her grandchildren nightgowns or night shirts every year and she had plenty of grandkids. Then to make the gift more fun she used various and sundry boxes to wrap them in. Like a cracker box or an oatmeal box. My reader said they always had fun comparing boxes and wondering what Grandma would come up with new each year.


I wonder today what my grandkids will remember about coming home for Christmas. That it was noisy. That there were a lot of presents. That the punch was good. (I remember that from when I was a kid. One of my favorite things.) That grandma always, always gave them a book along with some other stuff. That grammy loved them beyond measure. I hope they have good memories the way my reader did about her grandma's present in the funny boxes. Sometimes it's not the present or even the box that's most important. It's the love behind the gift.


Merry Christmas!! You are a gift to me.

Tree Fluffing and Story Fluffing Too

I did my Christmas decorating today. It no longer looks as if I'm moving in or out with all the boxes - except for one room where I've got boxes piled to the ceiling for present wrapping. Well, maybe not to the ceiling, but a big pile for sure. You have to have the right size box for your present after all. But even though I have stacks of nested boxes, I'm sure there will be one present that defies fitting in a box. That's why they make those lovely gift bags that don't take any wrapping. Cram that elephant in there and and stuff a piece of tissue paper on top of it and you got it. Wouldn't you know though that I like wrapped and taped and ribboned packages better. So wrapping presents is my next Christmas deadline.

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That is, if I don't get a real deadline before then. I've got a book floating around out there in edit land and sooner or later it's going to land on my desk again with my editor's remarks and suggestions. I don't mind editing because I want to make my story the best it can be, but back when she first suggested edits might be needed her words were that the story might need to be "fluffed" up. That word has hung around in my head ever since. Might I say haunted my thoughts a bit. Fluffed. How do you fluff up a story? Fluff is what Winnie the Pooh got in his ear when he didn't want to listen to Rabbit. Fluff is what that plastic pretend like whipped topping is. Fluff is petticoats under a summer dress. Fluff is pink cotton candy at the fair. Fluffing is what you do to your pillow before you lay your head down on it to go to sleep.

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And at Christmas time, fluff is what you do to an artificial tree to make it look somewhat like the real thing. At least that was what I was doing this afternoon after I pried the pieces of my tree out of its plastic storage container. It was really crammed down in there. That in turn smashed the branch-like appendages together and bent the wiry arms in unnatural growing directions. In other words it looked nothing like a tree should look. So the plastic branches had to be fluffed. Fluffing a pretend tree is not my favorite thing to do in the decorating job.

But I did it. In most all jobs there are some parts that are less fun to do than others. Fluffing branches is the less fun task. Pulling out all my sentimental ornaments to put on those fluffed branches is much more fun.

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It can be that way with writing a book too. It's not all fun and games. It can be exciting to come up with a new story, but it can be challenging too. And sometimes discouraging when the words are slow to come. Other times it can be a little scary when you're not sure anybody will like the words when they do come. And it can be tedious when you have to go over those words time and time again to make them right. And sometimes you have to fluff it up. Whatever my editor suggests, I know we have the same goal. To make the story one that readers will want to read.

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Thanks for reading and I hope all your trees and stories will be fluffed just right.