I love the Christmas season because I love getting gifts. I am also one of those people who cannot resist wrapped presents. You cannot tell me to wait till Christmas morning to open it. I have to at least peek, the moment I receive it. Then I bring it home, where my daughter will rip it open.
She also cannot wait for Christmas Day.
In the office, one starts receiving gifts on the second week of December. They land on your desk with regularity, until December 24. If you file a leave on the week of Christmas, you'll find them piled up when you return to the office the next year.
Perhaps because of the financial crisis, I received fewer gifts in the office in Christmas 2008 than the year before it, but still I got about 30 of them. So imagine my glee. Let's list some of them:
1. A bottle of perfume from Qatar
2. A pair of chopsticks and chocolates from Japan
3. Swiss chocolates
4. Fruitcake from Australia
5. A pretty violet pashmina
6. 3 bikini panties in neon colors, with a glittering heart in front
7. A white embroidered blouse
8. Stationery set
9. Fancy earrings
10. Cleaning cloth
11. Native table runner
12. Luggage tag with my name embroidered on it
13. A pretty notebook from Ayala Museum
14. A scrapbook
15. A Starbucks thermal mug
16. A set of tiny Post-Its
17. Lots and lots of cookies and brownies
18. Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns
There's plenty more, but there's a couple that I truly loved: a small wooden clip for holding notes with a painted cat in it, and a wooden carving of an angel cat singing carols.
Some of the gifts I received-- and gave-- were expensive. But there's an old truth in gift-giving: it's the thought that counts. I thanked all those who cared enough to give me a present, but like with the cat clip, I loved the person who took the time, or remembered, to find what I will truly appreciate.
That is the reason some of us get really stressed out come Christmas, especially when we're getting gifts for the ones we love. It's not the price of the thing. The joy on their face when they open it-- that is priceless. It's what's on my daughter's face when she got her three Bakugan. Heaven help me; I did not know what a bakugan is and had to harass toy store attendants.
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