Gifts

 If Nan was invited to your wedding every couple received the same gift for 50 years. How could she know what people needed, what decor they purchased? The wedding registry initiated in 1924 with Marshall Fields and it was mainly for the upper class, elite socialite and political families. Nan had one idea and never wavered from it. "BE GOOD TO ONE ANOTHER". This was her philosophy in life and so she proceeded with the same gift for everyone. A Mirror! WHAT? Do you have a mirror in your place? Who gave it to you? Did it come with the furnishings of the house? How many mirrors do you have including the one that is on your medicine cabinet, over your bathroom sink too?

She did not store mirrors in our basement and just pick one for the wedding. She would go to the store and match the mirror to the personality of the couple. Before wrapping the mirror she would get a tube of lipstick - mostly red - and write in block letters on the mirror "May you always see a smile!" I honestly do not know one person in my life who did this amazing gift giving idea. Nan was an original. NOW, how do you get that waxy lipstick lettering off the mirror. That is your problem. If you were having a heated discussion, an argument with your children, on the phone with a solicitor and looked in the mirror you would always end up smiling. IT was meant for the married couple to look in the mirror and crawl into bed holding and loving each other. Do not go to bed angry. Let it go.

Another favorite gift of Nan at Christmas, Easter, Birthdays, Graduations was underwear and socks. I do not like opening a beautifully wrapped package and find underwear. Every holiday there they were and every child received the same amount but different colors. She knew they would fit and she knew that half the socks would disappear within a few months. My sisters and I slept in the same room and we had one sock drawer. CHAOS! We kept our panties separate in our own special place but socks were a "free for all" seven days a week. We slept on the third floor, three days a week there was a basket of socks at the top of the steps not sorted, just washed and dried on the clothes line. I would pick through the basket for my socks and leave the rest for my sisters. Sometimes I would hide them under the mattress so I would always have a clean pair when I needed one. You would sometimes open the sock drawer and find one pink, one yellow, one white, one blue and one with a hole for the big toe. Crying and screaming would carry through the house at 7 am and the bus was at 7:15 am..

Another favorite gift was six or seven gifts from the dollar store. Nan would get her monthly check and head to the dollar store for random items she did not need but knew someone on their next birthday would love to have it. One day my sister took my mother's shower curtain home and put it in the washer and drier and it shrunk. Nan was furious she loved that shower curtain. My sister bought a new shower curtain that was almost exactly like the one she ruined. Nan tore it off the rod and said she would buy her own shower curtain. For 3 weeks she stood on the wall of the shower trying to get clean just so the water would not get on the floor without a shower curtain. Nan and I walked into the dollar store a few weeks later and on the third aisle was a stack of shower curtains for $1 each. She picked one and she was so proud she found it in her favorite shop.

Give with your heart!

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