Good and perfect gifts

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Have I mentioned yet that this has been a great Christmas? This sounds vaguely familiar…

Each day that passes that brings me closer to Christmas leaves me feeling more and more blessed. My husband is HOME this year. Home…for good. We got to celebrate Christmas with his family last weekend. And we will get to celebrate Christmas with my family next week. Blessed…

Thursday, the day that my in-laws were coming in, shaped up to be a wonderful day…full of so many wonderful gifts.

Christmas isn’t about the gifts. Honestly, I’ve gotten to that age where, inevitably, I have this moment amidst all the shopping and choosing and wrapping where I remember…oh yeah! It’s Christmas! I suppose I’ll get something too! 

I just didn’t expect to get such personal, beautiful, meaningful gifts. Even with my husband’s teases and threats to tell…his begging for me to guess…I just couldn’t wrap my mind around what people would buy for me. I suppose it’s better that way, than when I was a child and guessed what I was getting for Christmas almost every year!

Anyway…back to Thursday.

I went to PWOC, where when I got to Bible study there was a gift from my “secret Santa” wrapped beautifully with my name on it placed on the table in front of me, along with a candy cane attached to a sweet note from my Bible study leader. A few minutes later, one my other friends from the class brought me this:

It was “just” bath stuff…a fairly “common” Christmas gift, especially at ladies Christmas parties (one which I just happen to love). But this held so much more meaning. Because I was the only one who got bath stuff. Everyone else got some sort of baked cinnamon roll bread thingy. But this friend remembered my special dietary needs, and went out of her way to get me something else.

It really is “the thought that counts.”

Then it came time to open my secret Santa gift:

In case you couldn’t read it clearly, here is the quote:

“Some people look for a beautiful place, and others make a place beautiful.”

This is the “can-any-gift-be-more-perfect-for-me-than-this?” face:

My secret Santa had heard bits of my PWOC story, my testimony, and the growth that I’ve been through the last few months. But only bits. She doesn’t have Facebook, and she didn’t even know that I had a blog, let alone its name and theme verse. She told me she picked this quote simply because our next year is uncertain, especially in regard to where we will live…she wanted to inspire me to make it beautiful, no matter where I end up. And she painted and wrote this by hand.

I hung it up as soon as I got home. It “just so happens” to match the photos hanging in an arrangement that “just so happens” to be the length of the sign:

Good gifts…perfect gifts…

That afternoon, Russ called me on his way home from taking his certification exam. He was discouraged, even with a passing grade. And he thought that exchanging gifts with me would cheer him up. He begged and pleaded and I just couldn’t resist. Especially because, that morning, I had seen the wrapper for my gift laying right on the guest bed where he had left it. Since I knew what I was getting anyway…

I really liked having that moment with him…just us.

My gift was a terrabyte external hard-drive. Which was so romantic really. With all the photos and videos I take, my harddrive has been maxed out for a while. And my “my photos” backup has been filling up a whole separate external harddrive. I was quickly running out of space. So he bought me this harddrive, AND took the time to transfer my files onto it for me. (So this is why it took him two hours AND my computer to prepare my gift!)

{In case you were wondering, my gift to him was a memory box for his military mementos engraved with the crest of his battalion.}

Later that evening, we exchanged gifts with my in-laws. Russ insisted that I had to go first and open my second gift from him:

He got me a new wireless printer to replace my ancient-dinosaur-age 5-year-old non-wireless one.

This is the “I’m-pretending-to-make-the-surprised-face-because-he-missed-capturing-the-first-surprised-face-on-camera-and-is-making-me-do-it-again” face:

My gifts from my husband were so perfect. So practical. He knows my passions…photography, blogging, and printing off preschool printables for my son. He heard the sighs of frustration when the printer was getting me fits, even when I thought he wasn’t listening.

I never even thought to ask for a new printer…

Good gifts…perfect gifts…

The love just continued flowing with gifts from my inlaws. Like this “Life is Good” t-shirt:

Complete with a flower “tattoo” on the shoulder:

These shirts were obviously for Ezra…I’m sharing them just because they are so darn cute:

There were other great gifts. Chocolate, more chocolate, socks, and jewelry.

Then there was a finishing touch to the night. A gift bag my friend Brandy had slipped me after PWOC. A gift bag with a joke about coffee on it and Dove dark chocolates inside. She downplayed it… “It just some homemade stuff…nothing much.”

“Nothing much…” Only gifts that go to show that my friends read my blog and know what I am passionate about.

Only gifts to remind me of what God has done…gifts with the lyrics to the song that has come to be a symbol of change and growth and freedom:

“Nothing much…”

I teared up over her thoughtfulness.

Good gifts…perfect gifts…

And I got all of this in one day. It was too much. I was overwhelmed with God’s goodness…with the multiple ways He showed me in one single day how much He loves me.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father…”
James 1:17

And Christmas isn’t even here yet…