Plot Monkeys

One month and counting to the BIGGEST reason for shopping…in that vein, Gigi asks:

What are the favorite holiday gifts you have received over the years?

JD: I’ve received many treasured gifts over the holidays from many special friends, items that make me smile when I see said item because it reminds me of how lucky I am to have such wonderful friends. On the Christmas after the year my first Temptation hit the shelves, I received a gift from a reader I’d been corresponding with — she sent me a wooden box that she hand-painted pansies on top of. The painting was so gorgeous, and the gift was so unexpected and beautiful, not to mention hand-crafted, that it brought tears to my eyes to think that someone I’d only known for a year over the internet had lovingly made it for ME. I still have that box in my formal living room, and I’m still friends with the person who made it for me. It’s those kinds of gifts that I treasure the very most!

CP: This is hard because as I’ve gotten older, I’ve been the giver more than the receiver. My husband and I have an agreement of sorts - when we see something we really want, regardless of holiday, if we can afford it, we buy it and we say it’s from each other. So the holidays really are about the kids and I think that’s how it should be. Like Janelle, I’ve received special gifts from treasured friends over the years and those mean the most to me - pictures of the four plotmonkeys in a frame - things like that. I’m sorry there’s no one answer, LOL. I do have special memories growing up of my parents putting all our gifts out on a table and letting us rip into them all at once! And the one year I remember most is a Neil Diamond 45 record of September Morn which I’d wanted so badly and a special pair of pajamas, LOL! I hope my kids have memories like that when they grow up.

LK: One gift that truly touched me more than anything in a very long time was a few years ago, when my husband gave me some bowls. You see, when I was a little girl, my mother started collecting a china set at her local bank. My parents had 6 kids and not a ton of money, and this was a way for her to get some nice china. With every $20 deposit, you could buy another piece at a big discount. I have very distinct memories of my mother breaking up her deposits so she could go back every day to buy more of the set. She got most of it…but not the bowls.

Now we’re talking a few decades ago–more than thirty years. After she died, I ended up with the china set, and over the years I’ve waxed nostalgic over it, talking about the bowls she never got. Well, my incredible husband did some research, scoured internet sites that specialize in “finding” old china patterns, and tracked down those bowls. When I opened them that Christmas morning, I began to cry my eyes out. Since then, I usually find one specially wrapped gift, with a sugar bowl, a serving tray, a platter…one more piece to add to the set. I have no idea where he gets them, but he never disappoints me. And now it has truly become my set, as well as my mother’s, and I hope to someday pass it on to one of my daughters.

JEL: This was a tough question! I think I have to pick the telephone table and chair that I received from my aunt about four years ago. You see, my maternal grandfather died when I was about eight years old. My grandmother didn’t want to live in her house alone, so it was up to my mother and her siblings to clean things out. I desperately wanted to keep this small table and chair that my grandmother used to keep her telephone on. The story goes that I cried horribly when my aunt, who collected antiques and had a HUGE house in Georgia in which to keep them, took the table and chair instead. I really don’t remember this exactly, but I do remember making a big deal about the set every time I went to visit my aunt in Georgia. About five years ago, my aunt and her husband, who had since relocated to Florida, decided to move to Gulfport, Mississippi and she was downsizing. I’d actually purchased some of her antiques from her. But on the Christmas before they left, my aunt brought out the set, which I hadn’t seen in years and gave it to me. It’s in my formal living room right now! I was really touched that she remembered, after all these years, how special that little table and chair were to me. It’s a gift that means a lot.

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