Just when you see this polished and poised picture, I ruin everything with a title like that.
It kind of feels like it could be the title to a Christmas Saturday Night Live skit. But we’re not just hot gluing any old stuff together, it’s gonna be some fancy shit. So pinkies up kids!! Pay attention and keep it alive.
Last year I had the idea of creating a patchwork jacket with girlfriends for a fun night together.
Each girl brings a camo or denim jacket and you load up on patches, paint or whatever embellishments you love!
I’ll link it below in case you want to revisit it.
This year I wanted to share an idea that’s a little closer to my heart.
But don’t get it twisted that camo jacket was made straight from the heart.
Growing up I found the holiday season debilitating, because I was always broke.
When I was a teenager I was blowing money on gas because a Mustang GT wasn’t exactly economical but YOLO. Mustang Sally wasn’t slowing her Mustang down for anybody ya know?
Unless JJ called, then Mustang Sally brought her ass home, like immediately.
Then I got older and I had a decent job with a one bedroom apartment, but still NO MONIES.
I literally used to write my budget on an index card every month and stare at it every morning like something was gonna change in the middle of the night?!
NOPE, still broke as shit!
Not having a lot forced me to make the most with what I had…
which honestly has turned into some of the best gifts I’ve ever given.
One year, I just found myself at a total loss of what to get my dad. I was finally living on my own in Charleston, had a career and for the most part was not a financial burden anymore!!
I had spent the majority of my life watching him beat chronic pancreatitis and become a cancer survivor.
I just found myself thinking how do you thank someone for helping you get here?
I don’t have any money…a polo shirt won’t show the depths of my gratitude.
Sidenote: If you got someone a polo shirt for Christmas I mean no disrespect by that comment.
I just wanted my dad to know how awesome he was to me, how awesome he was to the people around us.
I just wanted him to know I hadn’t forgot what it felt like when he picked me up because I was weak.
My dad has always been a stand up guy and if you know JJ, then you know what I’m talking about.
So I sent an email to our closest friends and family asking them for a short email sharing a funny story about my dad. I begged for whatever spare time they had, it could be three sentences, an inside joke, a special moment you shared together, PLEASE anything will work!
Then I gathered all the letters he had written me growing up and I made a book out of all these letters one year for Christmas.
It was called, Just Me and My Father.
I cut and glued paper for a month and it was worth every second.
My sweet Mom just came to my rescue and sent me this picture because I realized I didn’t have one of it. Also, I was like Mom, do you mind taking a few pictures of the inside where the letters are?
She sent me 12 pictures and they all looked like this.
God bless that woman!! I am CRYINGGGG. My Dad is great, but he would not be alive without that woman so a book wasn’t enough for her. We’re gonna give her an island one day.
It was so worth it, I did a version of the book for Chris last Christmas with his daughters.
I used the Father’s Day cards they had given him through the years and did a progression of their baby pics from then to now.
I mean, SURE, it’s a freaking scrapbook, but DAMNIT, it touches the soul people.
IT’S A CROWD PLEASER!!
SCRAPBOOK ESSENTIALS
I wanted Chris to have something tangible where he could sit down and just see his daughters.
They both graduated high school this year and I saw it tugging at his heart. So what do you give a dad that’s terrified of his babies growing up…their memories.
When Chris turned 40, the girls and I made him this jar of 40 reasons we loved him.
Another touching tribute that doesn’t keep you from paying the light bill. The jar came from Target and I think was $8. I probably bought a sport bra that was more expensive in the same trip.
TARGET JAR OPTIONS
Allie wrote down some soul crushers for sure.
You could easily turn this into a Christmas gift by making it relatable to the entire year.
Maybe you could break it up with your kids and combined write 52 love notes? A note for each week and then it becomes a Sunday night ritual to read one as a family each week.
If it’s a gift from you to your partner it could be 12 notes one for each month and you read one over dinner each month.
I personally love music and I know we’re in the day and age where we can just make a playlist and stream from it from Spotify, but what if you wrote down 52 songs and dropped each one in a jar. Then every Monday on the way to work your partner picked a song out of the jar to listen to make Monday suck a little less. It’s like a modern day mixed tape!!
Maybe they’re cheesy ideas, BUT I know the two men who act the “biggest and baddest” in my life fell to pieces over these gifts.
So if you’re feeling flustered and like your pockets are being drained, meet me on the glue isle at Hobby Lobby!
We don’t have to over extend ourselves financially to tell the people around us we love them. I personally learned that the hard way growing up.
Whatever you throw under the Christmas tree push your shoulders back and keep your chin up…
because being you ROX. Merry Christmas friends.
-Lyv
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