They say it's the thought that counts. So if the gift is not well thought of does it count?
The best Christmas gift I got today was from my mom. You see, she's been weak the past weeks and is not able to go out much. Budget is also tight around the house and every peso counts. I was looking for glue stick earlier and saw our gifts in one of the kitchen cabinets. I was curious but had to let my EQ work so i won't take a peek (it was a few minutes away from Christmas anyway). When Elda and I announced that we've opened all the presents, she kept insisting that there's still some left but she couldn't find it (background: Mom has a bit of a memory gap going on... nothing to worry about, comes with age) so I opened the cabinet and asked if she meant those. She just laughed. I handed out the gifts to my sisters and we opened our own. The thing is, the gifts were actually recycled... like kids, we would all count the gifts everyday since they started coming and the wrappers were already familiar. It was funny how she changed the tags so it would show our name (she even used her generic Merry Christmas from Teacher Beth tag, hahaha).
The item inside was not really important... well mine was a hanky and mom knew I NEVER use hankies... what broke my heart was the envelop inside. Written on it was To Erika. Merry Christmas From Mommy and inside were P50 bills. New ones. The ones fresh from the bank that Ninongs and Ninangs give their inaanaks when they don't have time to buy gifts. The amount was not important. What struck me was the fact that Mom gave when she had nothing. And she gave everything she had, not leaving anything for herself.
Now I feel bad that I can never ever outgive my Mom, no matter how hard I try...
I love you Mommy. Merry Christmas. :)
I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.
-Maya Angelou-