#6 - Christmas Memories - The Twelve Photos of Christmas Past

 The perfect gift

What's the perfect gift for a child?  Sometimes, the answer is easy.

Gift-giving is a wonderful sentiment loaded with risk.  How much do I spend?  Will the child like what they get?  Will they think of me when they use it or see it?  Is this something they already have?  Can I even find what I am looking for in time?  There is always the chance that good intentions crumble into disappointment.

My daughter, Leanne, is remarkable in so many ways.  She has always had a love of art, making things with her hands.  From an early age, she enjoyed painting and working with paper and pencil (you could say she was drawn to it).  She also loved bright colours, and her favourite , by far, was purple.

Leanne used to collect cardboard, the non-corrugated kind like paper tubes and cereal boxes.  Then she would cut them apart and join them together in various creative ways.  One year she made an entire Christmas Nativity display out of toilet paper rolls, with popsicle sticks used for things like legs and tails.  To join the menagerie together, she used glue and her favourite binder of all, duct tape.

My wife and I were out Christmas shopping and we came across a display with various rolls of coloured duct tape for sale.  There was red, green, blue and yellow duct tape, but most importantly, they had purple duct tape.  I saw it and immediately knew what we needed to do.  My wife was doubtful about the veracity of the idea, but in this, I was absolutely certain.  We had to buy it and wrap it for Christmas.  It would be the perfect gift.

And so, on Christmas day, the four of us sat around the tree opening gifts, each one in turn, displaying the usual satisfaction of both giver and receiver as the traditional event progressed.  And then came the moment I was looking forward to, Leanne had in her hand that certain something that kindle the creative fire within her heart.  She unwrapped it, slowly and deliberately, as was her custom, and when she finally saw what it was she pulled it excitedly from the remaining package and exclaimed, "Purple Duct Tape!" 

None of the other gifts elicited such a response, and of all of them, this one item was the least expensive.  I saw pure joy in my daughter's eyes at that moment, and remember the event to this day with great relish and amusement.  It was the perfect gift.  I knew my daughter well.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com

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