Portraits, The BEST Christmas Presents EVER!!!

Christmas shopping. 

Just the thought of it makes me nuts this year! I have four children, and four grand children and MY DEARS, let me tell you that Christmas shopping this year could stress me out, IF I let it. 

Low inventory in stores, higher prices,  shipping delays backed and manufacturing issues have created some obstacles to getting everything on our lists.  So, I talked to my grown children and my teenagers and asked about what they or the kids wanted for Christmas.  The answers ranged from "I dunno" (my teen), "We're trying to downsize Christmas this year" to "No more toys, she has plenty." Well, I'm not sure that last one will pan out for them because babies are babies and they need some presents from GiGi and Papa to open.  

When it come to gift giving with my family, I can sometimes go overboard. Yea, I know, imagine that! I need to check my own self sometimes. I have to tone it down and bring it back to what really matters.  I know you feel me on this one. We can get so wrapped up in the 'season' and not the 'reason'. Parties, gatherings, shopping, cooking, decorating. It's A LOT! 

And that brings us right back to The Reason. 

I remember hearing the story of The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry when I was maybe 10. The story goes that on Christmas Eve, Della Young discovers that she has only $1.87 to buy a present for her husband Jim. She visits the nearby shop of a hairdresser, Madame Sofronie, who buys Della's long hair for $20. Della then uses the money to buy a platinum pocket watch chain for Jim. When Jim comes home from work that evening, Della admits to him that she sold her hair to buy him the chain. Jim gives Della her present-- a set of ornamental combs, which she will be unable to use until her hair grows back out. Della gives Jim the watch chain, and he tells her that he sold the watch to buy the combs. While the gifts that Jim and Della gave each other can't be used, they know how far they went to show each other their love and how invaluable their love truly is. 

How beautiful were the sentiments and sacrifices Della and Jim, unknowingly, made for each other? I know you, just as I, spend some amount of time, thinking and searching for that perfect Christmas present for loved ones, gifts that will express how much you love and care for them. Maybe we're not selling our most precious possessions but we ARE racking our brains, and sometimes we can't find just the thing to express our love, so we end up with an impulse buy, swearing that next year we will make better mental notes when someone says something that sparks a gift idea, or to JUST start shopping earlier.

While taking some Fall pictures of my family this past weekend, THEY reminded me how much they love when I've gifted them the portraits of their children. "Mom, we really do love getting these from you, especially when we've forgotten that we took them in the first place."  I had to laugh because often they are the last to receive their images because I'm busy editing an order of my clients. I think many of us overlook how much we really enjoy seeing those pictures framed on the walls as the years pass and the kids grow and eventually move on. 

I have a beautiful friend that was a professional photographer that gifted me many portraits of my own babies and families. They are among the MOST cherished possessions that I own. They're not on a hard drive, they are not hiding on the shelf in a photo album or somewhere lost in social media.  They are hanging, framed, and displayed throughout our home.

I see them every day.

And I smile.