On the first
Christmas after I became a single mom, my budget was pretty slim but I
wanted to give my kids something that they would love and that would be
worth more than the price that was paid… I thought “if I could, I
would give them a piece of me…” At a time when their world had been
rocked to the core with their dad and me separating, all I wanted was to
give them back a bit of the security they felt they had lost…  

Anyway, one of the
things I had in abundance were pyjamas… I know, it sounds weird right
but every year for Christmas, my first husband would lavish upon me a
new PJ from La Sensa… great quality stuff that takes years to wear
down. So with my simple sewing skills, I converted two of them into PJs
for my kids. The one was an blue Oxford stripe night shirt which was
turned into a top and boxer shorts for my son… and the other one was a
long night gown that had teddy bears dressed in plaid (with berets if
you please…) that I converted into a top and pj bottoms for my
daughter. When my kids opened these presents they beamed! They couldn’t
wait to get them on and I only realized why a bit later… It was
because even thought they had been washed, the kids could still smell ME
in the fabric of the pjs! They wore these pjs until the flannel was so
worn that it would rip and even then I would be asked to mend them so
that the life of the precious night clothes could be prolonged! Little
do we know the real gift that lies behind a home made gift!

I have since made
other presents for my kids… we themed some Christmases “Low tech –
High touch!” When you put your hands in the making of a gift, you can
label it a high touch gift… in today’s world these are less and less
frequent and yet they mean so much more!

I wanted to share this story with you today because I recently came upon a similar story from Stuart McLean and the Vinyl Cafe.
If you are not familiar with this wonderful Canadian story teller, you
must get acquainted with his dry sense of humour and his highly gifted
talent for writing and telling a story!

For your enjoyment, I am including the story that inspired today’s email. It is called Christmas Presents.
Now most of Stuart’s stories involve the same little family: Dave, the
dad, who is originally from Cape Breton, Morley, the mom, and two kids,
Stephanie and Sam. In this particular story, Morley has thought up this
brilliant idea that for Christmas this year, they should each pick the
name of a family member and hand make a present for that person. It is a
funny story but as you will hear; it is also very touching and I
couldn’t help but be moved by it. My hope is that you will be too!