christmas gift memories

heart-warming memories of gifts & the people who gave them

In my childhood, my dad’s gifts were the most anticipated - and they weren’t even the ones for me! We lived in a small town. Dad would go hit the local dress shops. He was known to see something on a mannequin and say, “I want that for my wife!” These were complete outfits. There would be a blouse, vest, jacket, pants, skirts, and sometimes other matching accessories. His favorite dress shop probably missed out on tons more sales because the mannequins didn’t have feet with socks and shoes on them. Ha!  Though he did often forgo the costume accent jewelry and go get something nice from the local jeweler.  

Here’s the thing he did that was so cool. He would have each piece wrapped there in the store … separately! Their packages were beautiful! He would come home at some random time with an armful of packages to go under our tree. It was so fun every year to watch my mom open each package. No one - not even dad - knew which piece she would be opening or what would be next to go with it. …