Simple Gifts (Gregg Cagno and Maggie Anderson)

Obviously we are all smarting from these recessionist times - the election of Barack Obama is a very good thing (Martha!)... but it's going to take time to turn the economy around.

I have been out of work for almost two months, we will spend a good bit of money traveling to South Carolina/Georgia for the holidays and we are still in the midst of bathroom repair/renovation - enough said!

We had a family meeting a few months ago and decided we were going to set a $15 limit on presents for each other (as well as extended family and friends) - it's actually been quite fun sneaking, planning and buying within boundaries... and outside the proverbial box...

Cheers to the gift of creativity... :-)

SONG: Simple Gifts as sung by Gregg Cagno and Maggie Anderson (backstory and lyrics of the Shaker song here...)

BOOK: Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case For A More Joyful Christmas by Bill McKibben

POEM: Christmas 1963 by Joseph Enzweiler

Because we wanted much that year
and had little. Because the winter phone
for days stayed silent that would call
our father back to work, and he
kept silent too with our mother,
fearfully proud before us.

Because I was young that morning
in gray light untouched on the rug
and our gifts were so few, propped
along the furniture, for a second
my heart fell, then saw how large
they made the spaces between them

to take the place of less. Because
the curtained sun rose brightly
on our discarded paper and the things
themselves, these forty years,
have grown too small to see, the emptiness
measured out remains the gift,

fills the whole room now, that whole year
out across the snowy lawn. Because
a drop of shame burned quietly
in the province of love. Because
we had little that year
and were given much.

QUOTE: "The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other." ~ Burton Hillis