Commentary By Danielle Pelkey

The North Jefferson News



I’ve often heard that the best gifts cannot be bought.

I know this is true in the realm of love and affection, but as far as real, tangible gifts, let’s get real. A great gift would be a new house or a new car with no payments attached to it. I don’t know anyone who would complain about these gifts.

This past weekend my husband, Todd, asked me if I wanted to open one of my gifts. We are really horrible gift-givers because we never wait until Christmas to give our gifts. We always open our presents to each other on Christmas Eve night because we just can’t wait one more day.

This year he is asking for a certain video game. I keep telling him that he’ll have to wait and see if Santa brings it to him. I believe this is the real reason he asked if we wanted to open one gift last Sunday. He just knew in his head that I would give him the video game.

To get me to give in, he told me that he was going to give me the best gift I could ask for this year.

The only thing that I wanted for Christmas is a certain ring. Now, I’m not a gold digger — this ring is one that I already owned, but I lost it about a year ago. I thought that I had lost it at church one Sunday and combed the whole church, but never found it.

This particular ring was so special to me because I got it from Israel. It is a ring shaped like a crown of thorns with an alexandrite stone in the middle. The alexandrite stone is the stone that represents Jesus in Israel.

This ring certainly couldn’t be found in America, and I didn’t even bother asking Todd for it because I knew he would have no idea what I was talking about.

So, I went straight to the source — I asked for it from my mom. Of course we were pretty sure that there was no way that we would ever find this particular ring.

A few weeks ago my mom informed me that there was no luck with the ring, so I wouldn’t get my hopes up on Christmas.

Back to the original story, Todd went out to the car and got my one present and I wrapped one of his presents. He handed me a little baggy that I quickly opened. You would never believe what I saw in that little Bath and Body Works bag — my Israel ring.

I immediately started crying and hugging him. I was more happy in that moment than I have been in months. He had really made my Christmas and I had no idea how he was able to do it.

He informed me that he had found it in the box with our outside Christmas lights. It must have slipped off while cleaning last year.

I then gave Todd his gift. He may have cried when he opened it, but it was tears of sadness.

You see, I didn’t give him the video game he wanted. I gave him a gag gift of a movie that he didn’t even like. I laughed out loud when he opened it because he was like a little kid on Christmas morning, sure that Santa had bought him exactly what he wanted. He looked disappointed and I laughed again.

Well, I didn’t want to ruin the surprise that Santa Claus might bring him on Christmas Eve, so we’ll have to wait and see if he gets what he really wants for Christmas.

I’m so happy to have gotten exactly what I wanted for Christmas. It didn’t cost us a penny, but it means the world to me.