But there are gifts that are "forever" gifts. Those gifts are chosen with care and given with love and the person who receives that gift can tell that the giver really cares. When I was a child, I did not get a lot of gifts at Christmas or even for my birthday but each one that I did receive was chosen and given to me with love. They were not always expensive because my family was not wealthy but they were priceless to me.

I was going over my gift list last night and started remembering gifts that I had received during my lifetime. When I was in elementary school, I got a watch for Christmas and my daddy and I immediately opened it to see how it worked inside. I loved the watch but the time we spent together learning how it worked was priceless.

One summer my daddy went to work in South Texas near Brownsville and while he was there he crossed the border into Mexico. When he came home, he was carrying a gift for me, one for my mother and another for my grandmother. My gift was a pair of leather sandals. Oh they were so beautiful and I wore them with such pride. I finally outgrew them and mother either gave them away or threw them away??¦I wish I could have kept them. Mother??™s gift was a big brown leather purse. It had cut out designs on the side and she carried it for years. It was probably the best purse she ever owned. She did not have a lot of money to put it in it but

she carried it everywhere she went. The gift for my grandmother was not

something to carry around or wear. It was a set of two small pictures in delicately carved wooden frames. The pictures were handmade and each one had two tropical birds. The birds were partially formed using feathers and the pictures are beautiful. I still have those pictures; my grandmother left them for me. These gifts that my daddy brought for us were "forever" gifts even though the sandals and the purse are long gone. They were forever because they were given with such love and the memories of them are still with me. Those memories won??™t go away.

Another "forever" gift that I received came from my husband but he was not my husband at the time. The local grocery in the town where we lived and worked had a beautiful bride doll on sale one year and I fell in love with her. When I opened my gift that year, the doll was inside. I was so surprised and so overwhelmed with her. She is growing old now along with me and sits on a bench in my bedroom. One of my granddaughters will have her when I am no longer here to take care of her.

Gifts of love are special. Gifts of love are not always expensive. Gifts of love are "forever" gifts because they stay with you for a lifetime. Perhaps we should all stop frantically searching for the just right gift for someone and instead give them a gift of love. That is what Christmas is about anyway, the gift that we received so many years ago in when the baby was born in Bethlehem was a gift of love and it was a forever gift.

?© Doris B. Fandal

December 2, 2003