Lump of coal?

Well,  it wasn’t a lump of coal that I arose to this morning.

A gift received via third party transfer, ensuring that I had something to unwrap on my first Christmas without a significant other or children.

I have been fairly unwell recently, and today is no different. A second course of antibiotics has not healed my painful middle ear infection. I have little to no hearing in my left ear, and a fair amount of decibels lost in the right. That combined with severe lockjaw and impacted wisdom teeth infection, I’m feeling swell.

I’m not one to criticise gift giving. I’ll own up to often being amused and baffled by the thought process or perhaps lack of in some cases. But I largely keep my thoughts to myself or amongst a small circle of peers.  Today, however, I feel compelled to document my complex thought process attached to this particular gift and its accompaniment.

It is quite possibly the most perfect gift I have ever received.

I shall read and devour it avidly, no doubt quoting and referencing it heavily in future posts.

However.

I’m perplexed.

Is this an apology?

Accountability?

An olive branch?

I should have known better?

Scaremongering and perhaps dissuasal?

Without context and communication the question shall forever remain unanswered. I shall not let my tendency to avoid acknowledgement of such complex gifts, stop me from being grateful however.

I am grateful.

I had a gift to open, along with a bag of lavender bath salts.

I do not have a bath.

I have hated lavender since I was eight years old, it brings back traumatic memories for me, I avoid it at all costs.

But.

It’s not a lump of coal,  which, I arguably perhaps deserved.

Then again, I’ve just watched my Step Mother unwrap a jar of Dill sauce from my dad.  Perhaps she wins ‘Worst Gift’ Award?