DID I EVER TELL YOU WHAT TO GET ME FOR CHRISTMAS?
http://jimreedbooks.com/mp3/tell.mp3
Click above to listen…click below to read.
If you really want to please me, if you truly wish to give me something that will make me smile, if you want to feel you’ve done the right thing by me, then read on:
This Christmas, give me something personal, something of yourself–not something you picked up at the Mall or ran into the Pharmacy and grabbed at the last minute. Just this one Christmas, I would love to receive something truly personal, something that is part of you.
The gift you give as a part of yourself could be any number of things.
You could write a little poem for me, one you made up all by yourself.
You could sing me your favorite Christmas carols, the ones you’ve loved since childhood.
You could do a little performance for me–a funny jig or a joke or two about what it’s like to know somebody like me.
You could draw me a picture and sign your name at the bottom and date it, “Christmas, The 21st Century A.D.”
You could take me to dinner all by yourself and sit and chat with me over some nice food and drink, I listening to what you have to say and you listening to what I have to say.
You could make a little album of photos and memorabilia about me and you, and give it to me with a loving hug.
Get the idea?
You may come up with something better or something more interesting than any of these–that’s ok. As long as you give me something personal, something affectionate and caring, I will be happy.
Maybe you feel uncomfortable, trying to improvise a Christmas gift for me. Perhaps you’ve gotten used to going to the store and purchasing something, and maybe you feel this IS a personal way to gift me. If that’s so, then here’s something you can try, something that may please us both: Go to the store and find a delightful little toy, a toy that makes you smile, involuntarily. Then, bring me that smile–and the toy, too. We can enjoy the toy and our mutual smiles together at the same time!
If all of this is just too much trouble, you could even do this: take me to lunch and ask me what I’d like to give to you, if I could only afford it or if I could only do it just right, in a way that you would appreciate.
Anyhow, I thought you might get a kick out of learning the answer to that age-old question we all ask each other every year: “What do you want for Christmas?” This year, I thought I’d tell you the truth, as I feel the truth this year.
Give me part of you, and I will try to return the compliment next Christmas
–Jim Reed (c) 2009 A.D.