Ray Young’s FB Page - November 26, 2011
“After being together for nearly thirty years, the Mrs. and I have both drawn a blank as to what to get one another for Christmas. Not out of spite or anger, just a basic and shared apathy. This is, in fact, the first holiday in which I have absolutely no desire to buy anyone anything. While my more progressive-minded FB friends would likely see this as no big thing, the traditionalist in me is at a loss. Anybody else in a long-term marriage faced with the same conundrum?”
As my husband so aptly suggested on his FB page, the giving of gifts between us on Christmas morning is not the same as it used to be for the simple reason that we have everything we need and require nothing more. Actually, I’d like to get rid of a lot of the stuff we’ve accumulated over the years. There are things we need though and occasionally we’ll go out and buy stuff. Like shoes for instance. Shoes are what I want for Christmas is what I was thinking during our morning coffee and conversation.
So, today I plotted the course and my husband drove us to the shoe store—not just any shoe store mind you—a really good shoe store the likes of which I haven’t seen since I was in grade school. In this store they actually measure your foot and bring you your shoes and you try them on and the sales person stays with you until you’ve found what you want. He brought me a shoe with a pointy toe that I hadn’t even considered at first, and the outcome was that it was a to-die-for style that actually fit me. Of course he had to put the Metatarsal pads in for me because my left foot is from Mars and my right foot is from Venus, but the end result is that we bought the pair of shoes which were on sale from $149 down to only $99 dollars. My husband was in awe of the store and being the diplomat he is said as much to the sales person, and I chimed in that I haven’t been in a shoe store of such quality and courtesy since I was five. We left the store very happy with what I considered to be my Christmas present. Tomorrow I'll go to Mass since I haven't been there in a while. I'll contemplate the true meaning of Christmas. Before I leave I’ll snatch a card off the giving tree. The card will have the age of an individual—most likely a child—and his/her Christmas wish. I enjoy buying this present every year.
