Casserole Carriers

For Christmas, I have started making gifts.  I just don't like going into a store to purchase gifts, I don't like shopping, and I certainly don't like the commercialism that goes with Christmas.  Mostly, I don't like how impersonal I feel giving those gifts.  I don't think it is the actual gift, but more the frantic pace shopping is, with commercialism gone wild and the gluttonous baskets filled to the brim with crap people don't care to give or receive.  

Christmas is not about that at all.  Yes, we all know Christmas is about Jesus' birth.  A precious little baby born to the world... a child that was given to us to save us, to open our hearts and minds to others, to share the beauty of life and to teach us to bestow blessings on others.

Sometime years ago, it became a holiday about gift giving.  I think at the time it was meant to be a holiday of 'giving'... giving from the heart about those you cared deeply about.  Little treasures that were meant only for you... tiny nothings that just let others know you were important in their lives.  Treasures you held dear to your heart because they were tiny gifts of love that meant you were someone special to another person.  Treasures. Truly gifts.

Later some 'genius'  decided it was about SELLING.  MONEY EARNING.  Fill the consumer's basket, frantically get everything the child desires.  EVERYthing the child desires. Toss crap at people they don't want or need.  Anything and everything sold to fulfill commercialism's dreams.  Things invented that make you shake your head.  Encourage frantic shoppers!  Isles and isles of crap to take your money... and PEOPLE GIVE THEIR MONEY!  That is what I don't get... WHY do people spend so stinking much MONEY at Christmas??

Something was lost along the way... People lost it.  They lost the meaning of what Christmas is meant to be; about the gift of love;  that someone special who made your life worth living, someone showing appreciation that they ARE in your life and that you are a gift to them.  One that moves your heart and lets you know how important you are to another.  Christmas is about love.


So, I have decided that my future gifts will be about love.  Hand chosen for each person, and made just for them.  I started a bit late this year and didn't get all my gifts made, but next year I will be better.  I have already started!  What did I make this year?  I made casserole carriers!  WHEW!  Did I overbite... lol... but I did get a few done and given away.  What a work of love!

Here is what one looks like:  

If you didn't get one, I am sorry.  It was not because I didn't think of you; it was because I refused to buy something that meant nothing to you or I, and it was because I started too late and got too few made.

If you are reading this, I love you.  You mean the world to me.  And you know I am awful at time management and I promise to get better.  I thought about you long and hard and how I was disappointing myself because I didn't get just one more made.  Yours.

You are special to me and I love you for loving me.