Generosity is contagious.

I have never really understood holiday gifts.

I mean, I understand them, I just don't quite get it.

Maybe this is because I am not religious.

Maybe because I was born without the innate sense of guilt, obligation, and sentiment most people seem to feel about holidays. That sounds strange, but it is the honest truth.

Maybe because my parents are horrible at surprises.

My sister and I always got our gifts by asking for things.

Around holidays and birthdays, we actually got them.

Which, by the way, is awesome. The gifts we got were generous and exactly what we wanted.

Mostly, I think it is just that I tend to be a gift-giver in general.

I buy people things whenever I find something I think they will like or need.

It doesn't occur to me to need a special occasion.

I'm not bragging. I don't buy everyone I meet creepily extravagant gifts.

But last year, when I noticed two of our new teachers didn't have presentation remotes, I ordered a couple of cheap ones from Amazon.


No one asked me to, no one made a big deal about, it just seemed like the right thing to do.

This year I asked my mom got me a Sodastream for Christmas. I have been spending a ridiculous fortune on bottled sparkling water and my student loan payments are kicking my butt.

Every penny matters right now. Or at least it would if I had an ounce of budgetary self-control.

Anyway, I am madly in love with my Sodastream.

Of course, as it happens, the very next week, I found a working Sodastream for 6 bucks at the Salvation Army.

I tried to leave it behind, I tried so hard.

But I just couldn't do it, despite the fact that I could not think of a single valid reason I might need two.

So I bought it, tested it, and stuck it in my car.

Then I asked around at work to see who might want it.

My neighbor/colleague/friend was super excited. It became her Christmas present, I guess. If I had found it in May, or August, or March, the result would have been the same.

This is why I don't quite get holidays.

It doesn't occur to me to need a reason to give people stuff, other than I want to.

The good thing is that I seem to rub off on people.

Mostly, gifts proliferate around this time of year, but I believe generosity is contagious.

There is no one good thing in this post.

Around the holidays, though, I think more about why and when people give gifts.

The gifts people appreciate the most tend to be the ones they don't expect, but kinda need.

P.S. Sorry for the late post, folks. I'm on vacation...which means I am basically brain dead this week. It is a wonderful feeling.