Christmas with the Delos

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve mentioned most of my Christmas presents, who gave them to me (I did), and how I went about getting most of them. As stated before, we do things a little differently around my house, but it works for us at this stage in our lives.

I could go on and mention a bunch of other potential gifts you could get for your outdoors person, but I think by now, you’ve probably either purchased the gift or figured out some alternative way of giving something to that special person.

If you’re still searching for something to give, do the obvious and ask them what they would like to receive. The Christmas morning surprise would be gone, but at least they would be receiving something they would like and could use. If all else fails, a gift card from their favorite outdoors store would work. However, be careful with this.

If you do give a gift card, make sure it is used and not forgotten. Also, do a little research on how ethical and honest the store is when issuing and honoring the card. I learned this the hard way. A few years ago, I gave my wife a $100 gift card to a major local “box” store so she could pick out exactly what she wanted.

My wife went shopping a week or so after Christmas and when she offered the card as payment, the store refused to accept it, saying there was no balance on the card. I took the receipt for the card along with the card and went to talk with their customer service folks. After getting nowhere with them, I asked to speak to the store manager. That was an eye opener!

The manager told me he couldn’t do anything and that I would have to contact the “home office” to get things corrected. He gave me the phone number. After spending literally hours on hold on the phone, when I finally was starting to speak to a live person (and not the disgusting automated system), I was cut off on the phone call. That happened more than once, and I finally gave up.

The next time I was in that store, I spoke with the store manager again to relay my lack of success in trying to resolve the problem. He could have cared less. And to add insult to injury, he told me he, personally, would never buy a gift card from that store because the cards had been nothing but trouble for both the store and the customers. The store stole my $100 gift from my wife and never batted an eye. I would name the store, but I don’t want to involve the newspaper or the editor in a potential legal problem since I am accusing the store of stealing my money. Just be careful if you go the gift card route.

Christmas is supposed to be about celebration, family and friends, enjoying the season, football games, and eating too much. Let’s talk about those things rather than the negativity I just described.

We are basically private people, so we don’t do a lot of entertaining during the holiday season. My wife doesn’t enjoy being thrust into a large gathering, so if I decide to attend a party, I usually go by myself. And I don’t go to more than maybe one or two parties a season anyway.

We both prefer to spend our time contemplating why we celebrate Christmas to begin with. I’ve talked a bunch about the secular aspects of Christmas without touching on the reasons for the celebration.

As you are no doubt aware, Christians celebrate Christmas as marking the day God the Father sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to take on human form and instruct mankind in how to please and honor God the Creator of All Things. Christ was also sent to earth to be the necessary sacrifice to reconcile man and his sinful nature with the Perfect and Loving God of the universe.

The world is so fractured today, politically, and religiously. This country is so divided politically that many folks are saying the nation should split in two, having an area for the so-called progressives and another for the folks who view the world conservatively. I think if people would just make an effort to talk about their differences and try to understand the “other” point of view, we could get along just fine. Have a Merry Christmas!