NaBloPoMo Day SEVEN!

Wednesday December 7, 2011
What was the strangest thing that ever made your gift wish list?




I ALMOST didn't get this one in.  15 minutes to go in the day before I remembered I hadn't done this yet.  This is why I usually blog at 4AM...because that is when I remember.  


I don't really know what "strange" thing has made it on to my wish list.  I do know that every year I am horribly disappointed in what is ON my list and this is why...


Something happens to Christmas when you become a single parent.  Not just Christmas, but birthdays too.  Any occasion where "receiving gifts" is the theme.  It no longer becomes about what you want, desire, dream to own.  It becomes about what your family needs.  I sit back and watch the kids ask for this toy, that toy, this cool gadget, that one...and I get to ask for...silverware, dishes, gas cards, crock pots, blenders, tupperware, tires for the car, car repairs, baking pans....things that the entire family can use.  Because as a single, very financially poor parent, this is the only way that I can receive the things my family needs.  I certainly can't afford to buy them with my very low income.    


Now...I am in NO way saying I am ungrateful that these items are chosen off my lists and gifted to me.  I am INCREDIBLY grateful that they are, because they are things we desperately needed when I asked for them, and they make life for the family much easier...


I'm just saying...as a single parent, you chose to make the gifts you receive for you, to be for your family.  And so it's really hard to find the "strange" in that...it's just what you have to do to survive.  So perhaps "survival tools" are the strangest thing to ever be on my list.