The Best Gift

Christmas was great!.. although I feel badly- I thought I had Mom.. but apparently I had Mom AND Dad! *facepalm... Sorry, Dad :(

But I think I aced my other gift-giving, though.

I may be crafty-capped, but I can paint and
lay down stickers in a line ;)

BF got an ornament that made him laugh- Point!
BF also got some rail-clips to organize his sockets, said they'd help out his tool bag- Point!
BFF's hubby got ramps to make car repairs a little easier and he smiled about it- Point!
BFF.. Eh, she's known for a while what I was going to get her, and she's needed it for a long time. Maybe we'll go cash in that gift card together? Yeah, we'll call that Point!

I think this year, though, I had two favorite gifts.

In the last couple years, I've had to do a lot more of my own car work. And I have had absolutely NO tools to do that work... until Santa gave me a beautiful set! Woot- full set of sockets, open-end wrenches, alen wrenches (all in both standard and metric!), screwdrivers, pliers, etc.

But I think my favorite gift was given to me by my sister-in-law, Tristina.

I left home about noon on Christmas Eve, getting there about 2:30. I could only stay one day, and had to head back Christmas evening after dinner. When my brother and his wife came back over for dinner, Christmas evening, he came in right away, but she took a while to come in the house. I thought may be she was having a tough time waking up (she'd had to work the night before and had slept all afternoon) or something.

I finished my dinner, and started gathering my stuff up to take to the car. When I went out, I found her scraping my windows so I could see, and brushing the snow off the top so it didn't slide down and block the windows.

“Oh, Tristina- you’re cleaning off my car!!.. You’re wonderful, you’re gonna make me cry.”

“Oh, don’t cry!”

“No, no- it’s a good cry, lol.”

I don’t think she knows how much that means to me. You see, I heard once that there are five basic ways we communicate and perceive love, ways that are more effective than others in letting people know we love them… Love Languages.

Gifts

Affection

Quality Time

Acts of Service

Words of Affirmation

When someone speaks your love language, it means so much more. Sure, I’m grateful for that tool set- it will give me the opportunity to save money and learn new skills. And I love the clothes my best friend gave me- they’re beautiful... even the electric-blue cheetah socks!

But doing something for me, even if it’s spur-of-the-moment… That kind of thing means more than I can think of words. If you know your own love language.. and you’ve had someone unexpectedly speak that language to you, then you understand what that’s like.

Thank you, Tristina- I love you!