12 Days of Christmas Giveaways (2017) – Day 5
*Give Away has Ended*
GRAND PRIZE!!!
One of you WHO COMMENTS ON ALL TWELVE POSTS AND ALSO SHARES ABOUT THE SERIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA will win a grand prize from me, pictured here.
REMEMBER…in order to win the grand prize, you must leave a comment on all 12 posts. You can start with Day One HERE.
OK, let’s get started with our fifth day’s guest, Alex Kuykendall!
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Giving the Gift of Time
It was the end of the Christmas Tea. A room filled with beautiful women in fancy clothes sitting in front of china place settings on their decorated tables. I’d just talked to the group about unmet expectations and grief during the holidays when one of them approached me and said, “I’m changing my Christmas wish list. This year all I want is for each of my boys to take me out to lunch in January. Alone.” I could tell she was holding back the tears. “I miss my boys.” I could feel my tears of empathy well because I know what it is to want someone’s attention.
In a world where we are increasingly isolated and ever busy we can forget to slow down enough to notice the ones closest to us. A great way to ensure some time together after the hustle, bustle of the Christmas season is to give a set aside activity as a gift. This tells the recipient time with them matters. It can be a great budget friendly gift too because though time is costly, we do not have to spend money to offer it.
Whether the people on our list are our preschool aged children, our parents, neighbors, or friends, we can offer them intentional, quality time as our Christmas offering. Giving time as a gift, minimizes stuff accumulation, and increases memories. Gift ideas include:
- Tickets to a sporting or cultural event
- A restaurant gift certificate to be used together
- A vacation sometime in 2018
- A coupon for a back rub on demand
- A class to take together
- A standing weekly date to walk through the neighborhood
- A membership to a local museum or zoo
- Movie tickets or Netflix membership for the homebound recipient with the promise of Friday night movie nights
No matter your budget, or the person on your Christmas list, you can choose just the right gift of time to give. As Karen says in her book, Listen, Love, Repeat, “Most anything we want to find is easily available with the click of a mouse or a touch of the screen. But I have noticed through the years that of all the presents my kids might receive, the ones that matter the most are those that cost time.” (Pg. 64) When we give the gift of time we are telling the recipient they are worth this prized resource. Our presence is priceless and they are worth that price.
Day Five Giveaway
For the 12 Days of Christmas series, I am giving away A copy of my book, Loving My Actual Christmas: An Experiment in Relishing The Season and a Loving My Actual Life racer tank (size XS).
You can read more about Alexandra Kuykendall’s experiment to put an end to the holiday madness in her new book Loving My Actual Christmas: An Experiment in Relishing the Season. A trusted voice in mothering circles, Alex speaks to women around the world about issues of parenting, faith and identity. She is the Cohost of The Open Door Sisterhood Podcast and has also authored Loving My Actual Life and The Artist’s Daughter. Alex lives in the shadows of downtown Denver with her husband Derek and their 4 daughters who range in age from 15 to 6. You can connect with her at AlexandraKuykendall.com.
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12 Days of Christmas Giveaways Rules
- You can comment on all 12 days (once per person) up until midnight Pacific time, Sunday, December 17. All posts are linked on Day One here.
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- One daily winner will be chosen from each day’s comments and all winners (including Grand Prize) will be announced on Wednesday, December 20.
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As a massage therapist, I have given my family gift certificates for free massages. It may sound a bit weird and you might ask yourself why I wouldn’t just massage them free all the time? Firstly it’s because they have to schedule with me, so there isn’t an excuse or another event taking its place. Secondly, we can chat one on one while I am giving them the gift of my time . While they are laying on that massage table, they are guaranteed an hour of quality time that I can give them, they are able to relax and just receive.
the gift of time. What a wonderful idea!
Thank you for sharing
Growing up I would rather have had some more time than things. Had forgotten about it but have make up “coupons” as gifts – batch of cookies, etc.
Thank you for the opportunity!
I love this message! I started gifting experiences to my step-sons to avoid the frustration of finding gifts broken hours after they had been received. Our time together creates memories we continue to laugh and talk about :)
Omg! I feel like this pop up at a great time in my life. It’s a struggle. Guess I need to put this in my must read list,
Love this. Going to suggest my husband take his hard to shop for grandmother on a “date”.
Love this idea! Time isn’t the most precious thing.
I agree–time is a very costly one that means the most
I did this with a couple colleagues last year. A lunch date with one and a coffee date with another. It was a great way to set aside time to chat and catch up. Way more fun than something to collect dust or toss aside. Can’t wait to check out Alex’s podcast. Always on the lookout for good podcasts to make the commute interesting.
A nice reminder about the 4 Love Languages. Quality time is huge in my family. We love to give our kids experiences every year.
Time. Best. Gift. Ever. Of course my love language is quality time so I’m biased ;)
Thanks for sharing!
With the hustle and bustle of daily it’s difficult to slow down and give time. I look forward to taking time out to spend some quality time.
Thank you so much for this blog…i know am realizingthe perfect gift for my 87 year old mother…to just make a plan and commitment to spend time with her.
My daughter is easy to find something that we could do together but my son is a much harder person to buy for he’s not one that likes to spend time with his mother unless you’re watching movies so this year I’m getting his favorite movie and I know that he’ll love to watch over and over again with me and that’s our special time together .
We go through seasons of changes the way we celebrate Christmas outwardly. This year my husband and I will be alone for the first time in 36 years. The title of this reminded me Christmas is always the same in my heart every year. It doesn’t matter who I’m with or where I am, Jesus is the reason for my celebration.
Thanks for this reminder of the importantance of the gift of time.
thank you for the reminder and ideas :D
A good reminder in a season of busyness!
I love to spend time with family and friends! I just want them to as well! I need to spend more time with my dad bc he just lost his wife of 42 years and we’ve never had a relationship bc of her dislike of him having a family other than her!?! Now, we are making up for lost time together! He is also finally getting to know his grandchildren too! Now, we just took him to the Dr and he’s gotta have a biopsy of prostrate to ck for cancer! MRI showed a 4 on scale of 1-5 with 5 being definite cancer!! Praying we get quite a few more years with him!!
Time with family is so precious and I am reminded of this this past 19 hours we spent without power. We were all snowed in and had no power, so we had time to interact with each other and beautiful outdoor scenery. No phones, no computers, etc. just us. It was peaceful and wonderful. The gift of time really is a blessing!! Merry Christmas one and all!
I try to always make time with my girls together and then each of them individually. I treasure our times together! Thank you!!
This is so correct – the most costly gifts are the ones that involve TIME. And , those are usually the most valued and remembered.
yes, experiences and time together are the most priceless gift