What To Give Me For Christmas

This post has been floating around Facebook, and I am fairly certain my friend Pat is the one who authored it.  It’s been copied and personalized on many friends’ pages, and I really thought it was worth keeping year round, so here’s my version posted on my blog instead!

Each year, my sons ask me the same question… After thinking about it, I’ve decided to give the real answer: What do I want for Christmas?

TIME.

I want to hear from you from TIME to TIME.  I know you have commitments to activities and people.  A random five-minute phone call in the middle of the day, or on your way home from work, or whatever would be the best TIME in my 24-hour day!   Just call and say, “Hey Mum.  Was just wanting to say hi.  Whatcha’ up to?”

Just a few minutes of your TIME.

I want to hear about your job.  How are things going?  What’s it like to teach 5th graders?  Walk kids from their cars getting dropped off and into the building?  How was the drive on the way home?  Car running okay?  How do you spend your TIME in the car?  Praying?  Listening to music?  How many trains do you have to take to get back to the dorm from work?  Do you have a lot of homework?  Papers to grade?  What are your students like?  I bet you have some fun stories to tell.  How are your friends at school?  How are your grades?  Your TIME at college is almost over!  Will you miss it?

How are you spending your TIME?

I don’t need a gift purchased with money, wrapped with sparkly paper, topped with a pretty bow.  I just want to hear from you from TIME to TIME.  Remember the year I asked for a letter instead of a present?  I kept those letters.  I still cherish them, and I take the TIME to read them every single year when I put up the Christmas tree, and I remember…..

What a joy the TIME was raising you both……..

A quote from my friend,  “We want you to continue sharing your life with us. Come over and laugh with us, or laugh at us, we don’t care. Hearing you laugh is music to our ears.”    Yeah, I could not have said this any better than my friend Angela.  I am interested in your lives, and long to hear about them, because I love you both.  Pop over for coffee one day.  Ten minutes of TIME at the kitchen table means more than a trip to the beach or a million dollars to me.  In fact……….

I would choose TIME with either of you over any thing that is purchasable with money.