A gift of love…

Debbie

Steve Cutting asked if he could share this little write up about Debbie’s special gift for giving…I love the story, and hope you will, too:

Christmas is supposed to be about giving right? It is better to give than receive! I have heard that since I was an infant. Such easy words but not so easy to accomplish in today’s world. Oh, yeah, we all probably think that going shopping for your wife, kids, the boss, Aunt Di, Uncle Bill and the rest, spending just the right amount on just the right gift is going to keep you out of Bad Gift Purgatory.

Yeah, you feel pretty smug about giving that special gift to that special someone and all the while trying to maintain that inner peace about it’s better to give than receive.

But then it starts to creep in, I wonder what they got me???

Christmas is also supposed to be about helping the less fortunate; those that have should give to those that don’t. We pass the kettles and drop a few dollars in, or buy a new toy or some other gift and drop it off at the collection point and feel we have done our part, and for most of us that works just fine. But for some that is just not enough……….

I know someone whose Christmas spirit is on E-Bay overload. I live with boxes of mittens, bags of beanies, costume jewelry by the pound. Hand made stockings ready to fill, decks of cards, piles of socks, all kinds of small toys for all sizes of kids. Cars and trucks and spaceships, Spiderman toothbrushes, hand warmers, stuffed animals, and enough chocolate candies to make Ol’Lady See do a double take.

All year I have seen my office fill up with all this stuff. Each week brings a new bargain…”Honey, look at the bag of stuffed animals I got, can you believe 20 for 8 dollars,” or something like that.

I have heard that same line for over 50 weeks and I have to admit it’s been hard for me at times to share the same enthusiasm. I see the E-Bay correspondence about another purchase, another shipment arrives at the door, and another box is added to the office floor. I have lost my chair space to a bundle of mittens and hand warmers….

I forget the goal; I think it was 100 stockings. It started last year with about 10 or 15. She made the stockings by hand, cut out the felt, sewed them by hand and even trimmed each one with a fuzzy top. Off to downtown Seattle for a shopping trip with stockings in tow. Each was handed out with love and most were received with adoration. After that experience it was decided to up the ante, 100 stockings, some for adults, some for kids, all for the less fortunate.

With help from a few friends and a shopping gene that few possess, she bargained hunted on the net, in the mall, and networked like a Wall Street Trader. What transpired is a roomful of bounty that lies in wait for Christmas.

All this was done without a single thought of any kind of notoriety or payback. Just simple kindness in a world that could use a lot more of that. Giving for the sake of giving. Giving time, effort, money and love just cuz….just cuz….I think that is pretty cool. If fact I think that it is so cool that I wanted everyone to know even if she didn’t want anyone to know. Maybe it might make a difference, maybe it might touch a chord and we all could choose to be a little kinder…..just maybe…

The first stockings were put together the other night. After that first test stocking was completed she held it high in the middle of the living room and asked “isn’t it darling?”‘ I had to admit it was pretty darn cute. The little stuffed animals poking their heads out the top of the stocking waiting patiently for Christmas morning. As I write this, boxes full of the prepared stockings are keeping a sharp eye on me from their perch on my desk. I couldn’t think of anything better to share my space with…..whole lotta love in those boxes…

Here’s the breakdown, I had to ask the other night who, what, how many, you know guy stuff.  100 total stockings. Thirty go to the Family Resource Center here on the Island, the rest are bound for a Mission on the Mainland.

She wondered why I asked, “Are you mad because I spent so much on all this?” “Mad?” I answered. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my stimulus check…

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