My gift shelf is calling - something it does at this time each year.
Hey you, the gift shelf will say. Time to get cracking. Christmas is only two months away.
I'll hear this - and I'll swing into action.
It tends to happen this way. The husband and I will be out and about. In Steveston, say. Or White Rock. Or Kits. We will walk by some adorable little giftie store, and I will say: "Oh, wait right here. I have to go in and get something."
And I will. Some note cards, perhaps. A teacup. A journal. A pair of pretty earrings.
"And who is that for?" the husband will ask when I return.
I will usually shrug. "No idea," I'll say. "Right now, it's for the gift shelf."
The husband will not understand this, but it makes perfect sense to me. Have a healthy gift shelf, and you'll always have a little something for those birthdays you remember at the last minute, or for that hostess gift you need to give, or for anniversaries and graduations and housewarmings.
And Christmas.
And as I say, it's just two months away.
"I need to drop into that little stationary store just around the corner," I told the husband the other day. We were in Vancouver, driving.
"What for?" asked the husband.
"Need a couple of things for the gift shelf," I said. "Christmas is coming."
"That is just really, really weird," the husband observed.
The husband - like most men, I would venture to guess - has never had a gift shelf, and almost certainly never will. When he decides to buy something
for a pal's birthday, he does not head to a gift shelf. He heads to the liquor store - and usually three days after the birthday. If he gets a card, he's doing well.
The husband, it might be noted, would also never step foot in an adorable little giftie store. In fact, he would not even know what constitutes an adorable little giftie store. Golf stores, book stores and hardware stores, he gets. Gifties, not so much.
Me? I'm into them big time. In fact, I cannot walk by a giftie store without walking in, any more than the husband could walk by a tailgate party without helping himself to some wings.
Christmas is almost two months away, and I really need to get going. No idea who I'm shopping for. I only know that I am.
