I have been told numerous times that I go overboard for Christmas by my family. Yes, the very people I get gifts for are telling me to cut back on how much I give them, but I just cannot help myself. I love giving gifts. Each year I promise them and myself that I will temper my gift giving and each year I break that promise. Not intentionally, rather it just naturally happens. The act of giving gifts to the people I love most in the world makes me happy.
This Christmas was no exception, and it took my husband John and I a full week of nights to wrap all the gifts. Around the third night of wrapping, the absurdity of all these gifts sets in and I start promising John that I will not do this again next year. He nods his head, rolls his eyes, and says he will believe it when he sees it. To be honest, I am not sure I believe it either, as this is the dance of lies I tell him and myself every year.
Gifts and More Gifts
This year, on top of a multitude of gifts, I also got each one of my grown children a gift for their family. Keep in mind my children are 29, 31 and 35 each with significant others and some with children of their own. And now my grandchildren are all part of this crazy extravaganza of gluttony. In fact, our four-year-old grandson Boston got tired of opening gifts. To be fair we got him and his sister a hot dog stand to share for their big gift and he was more interested in playing with it than he was opening more gifts, but I digress.
Each family’s big gift had arrived and was wrapped and under the tree, except for one. In fact, that gift was quite the challenge. I ordered it from one company online that apparently handles it exclusively. A few days later I noticed they had not charged my credit card, so I called them. I was told that they were out of stock because they allowed for over ordering. Which translates to some customers not receiving what they ordered. Boy, I was mad, but I did not let that deter me.
Searching…
I searched on the web for days and finally found a small Mom and Pop store in the state of Washington that had some they bought for their camping store as a promotion. Buy a camper and get this beautiful buffalo checkered loveseat camping chair as a bonus gift. Only now they had ten left. I immediately called them and bought one. They billed my credit card, and it shipped the next day. FedEx said it would arrive on December 24th.
Then on the 24th I received an email stating shipment is delayed and it would be delivered on the morning of the 26th. Ok, I thought we were not doing our family Christmas until that day anyway. Maybe things would work out.
On the morning of the 26th I awoke to an email saying there was another delay, and it would be the 27th before it arrived.
But wait, a vision
Upon telling John the bad news, he said he had a vision that it was going to come at the exact moment it was time for them to open their gifts. I laughed when he said it because I was staring at the email that said differently.
Everyone arrived and we all sat in our customary circle opening one gift at a time, a process that takes hours. We finally got to the last gift for each couple. First, our youngest daughter and her fiancé opened their family gift, which was a Keurig coffee maker. Then my son, the eldest, and our daughter-in-law, who got an outdoor pizza oven. This left our middle child and our son-in-law to open their gift. Only there was no gift to open.
When all of a sudden…
Our dog Bob went nuts barking and a knock on our door followed. If you guessed it was FedEx, you would be right and just like the vision my husband had, the gift was hand delivered to them by the delivery driver. Literally, at the exact moment they were to be opening their last gift.
If you saw something like this in a movie you would not believe it.
When I think of all the variables that had to happen to make this exact moment happen it boggles my mind.
First…Perfect Timing
First, we had to move our family day for Christmas from the 25th to the 26th. We originally moved the day because the whole family could not get together on the 25th but moving the day also allowed John and I to spend Christmas with the youth at Holston Home which was a blessing in itself.
Second, the original company I ordered the chair from had to mess up the ordering process.
Third, I had to find an obscure little business who overbought some for a promotion.
Fourth, Fed Ex had to be completely wrong about their delivery times.
And, last but not least, in order for the delivery to take place at the exact moment it was time for them to open the gift, I had to have bought the perfect amount of gifts for everyone to open.
When you think about it, the odds are astronomically against John’s vision coming true, but it did.
Proving to me yet again, that everything happens at the right time. We can try to control what we can, but when all is said and done, what is meant to happen will happen and that is one more reason life is mysterious.
