I sent the last of the Christmas presents for our family last week. There frankly weren’t many, because Amazon did most of the work. The rest of the work will be done by the families when the gifts for the children land on their front porches. I had it easy this year, at least present-wise.

I will admit that, while I have enjoyed this season, as Christmas Day approaches, I am missing our kids and grandkids more and more. Don’t get me wrong. I believe that we made a good choice in not flying (twice) this holiday season. And I am very grateful for the family I have here. We will be lucky enough to spend Christmas Eve at Mark and Maggie’s and Christmas Day at Erik and Josey’s.

But not being able to watch my grands open their presents makes me sad. My fingers and toes are crossed that this will be a one-off and that next year will be a normal Christmas. I opened up my browser and saw the headline Biden: Pandemic Will Get Worse Despite Vaccine and closed down my browser before I broke into tears. Can’t we have just a little Christmas hope?

As I was picturing my grands opening their presents, I began thinking about the best presents I have received over the years. I recall being a very little girl and Santa Claus bringing me what I forevermore referred to as my Big Doll. She really was quite big, probably not that much smaller than me as a tyke. She had long blond hair and I named her Linda. Santa didn’t wrap our gifts, so she was sitting there Christmas morning awaiting my awakening. I loved that doll. In fact, I loved her so much that when I had surgery at age 7, I took the doll with me to the hospital. When I awoke from surgery, Linda had the same incision as me. Nurses are the best.

One year, as an adult, I got a denim shirt from my mom and dad. The shirt itself was nothing special, although it was soft denim and very comfortable. But on the pocket, my mother had embroidered the initial K with colorful embroidery thread. I wore that shirt so often that it finally ripped in such a way that it was beyond fixing. Nevertheless, that shirt still hangs in my closet reminding me of my mom.

One year Court got me a beautiful porcelain rose for Christmas. It serves no purpose but to look pretty, and it does a great job of that. It lives in my china cabinet at my Denver home. A year or so ago, I cleaned out that cabinet and got rid of a lot of things, but that porcelain rose made the cut. I love it so much.

Perhaps my most memorable Christmas gift was from Bill. The little house in Denver where Court and I lived had a detached one-car garage. When Court and I pulled up into our driveway off the alley, it was Court’s job to hop out of the car and open the garage door for me to pull in. One day, Bill picked me up at the airport where I was returning from a business trip. He and I were not yet married. He pulled up into our driveway and suddenly the garage door opened. I nearly cried with joy. He had installed a garage door opener on the garage as a gift. I don’t know who was happier, Court or me.

Do you remember your favorite presents?