The 'gift' of being broke... at Christmas.

Spent a good chunk of this afternoon making school gifts. When you have a slightly autistic son in public school, there are so many folks who help him – and you ! – that you wanna say ‘thanks !’ to them all… but who can afford 15+ gifts ?

Last year, I bought Lucite wedding favor shoes (using 40% off Hobby Lobby coupons) and made sand-filled pincushions, complete with a matching drawstring bag for giftwrap and pins and needles. I made 24, and gave them all out within a half-hour. I used small scraps from my fabric stash, packaged ribbon from yard sales, and silk bows and rosebuds bought both on sale and secondhand in package. All I had to buy were the shoes and sand, and I even got mileage out of the sand – instead of buying craft sand, I bought playground sand. When crafts were done, the leftovers were used for catboxes and front porch steps in ice storms. All told, we spent less than two days and less than $10. in cash for over twenty gifts. I was pretty proud.

Well, we’re doing OK so far this year, but this week, there simply is no ‘extra’ cash for that. Or anything. And, of course, school is out Friday. I’d about reconciled m’self to making something for Dearest Son’s teacher and that would be that, but I still felt kinda down about the whole thing. Then I remembered. Felt star ornaments ! The school motif is stars, and I had a wire ornament I could trace on a cardboard box for a pattern. Lots of felt in the stash, along with ribbon for hangers, and I’ve had several great thread scores at yard sales this year. Fiberfil, too. And if I hauled my backside off the computer and into the Lab, I could make a prototype, and if it didn't take long, I’d probably have them done by nightfall. This was at 11am.

Even with lunch and a long break, I had half of ‘em done before 2pm, and the rest were cut out and ready to go. I learned a while ago to save trimming and stuff I could do away from the machine for bus-watching time. Even with breaks and time with Dearest, I was completely done at 6:30 tonight. All I have to do is wrap 'em, and wrap the boot-box I'm carrying them to school with, and that can wait 'til tomorrow morning.

Sure, they’re small gifts. Not even worth much, and half will end up as cat toys, not holiday ornaments. But I will have said ‘thanks’ to a lot of folks the best way I can right now. And that’s enough for me. I'm not ashamed I'm not giving, or embarassed that I'm not giving more. I feel good about what I did today.

I’m kind of glad I went for something small and easy. If it weren’t for our ‘gift’ of being broke, I’d be driving myself and my guys nutz, trying to top last year’s gifts. Which would have involved a week of work, and waaay more than $10. spent. Not to mention the frustration factor. So I’m learning to accept what I can give, and be happy with it, a lesson I just never seem to learn otherwise. Also got in some good practice pivoting with the presser foot down ! 

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