At Christmas, we all told each other he was the best gift receiver that ever was.  He makes me feel good to be a gift giver.  It doesn’t matter what you wrap up and hand to this guy – he could simply die from the sheer joy of it.  He will scream, clap, hug you, say, “this is the best [whatever] ever” and then rush to use whatever it is.  This applies to everything, including the free goodie bag from our dentist.  It turns out, a new Mader toothbrush (in spite of his refusal to watch or even care about the Cars franchise since he came here) and a “baby” toothpaste “all my own” are better than 10,000 elaborate gifts.  I will go so far as to say the free one-time use plastic-handled dental floss was a new toy he carried in his pocket for two days.  He simply cannot hide his pleasure when he is given a gift to own.

I don’t typically get excited about my free toothpaste – my reward for 45 minutes of anxiety in the dentist’s chair.  My love language is acts of service, but I do get that same kind of mileage out of a kind act done on my behalf. Married to a “gifts” guy, it has been valuable to us in our marriage these last 20 years to learn to give to each other in the ways we best receive love.  This has also naturally become part of our parenting.  No question at all about this new little guy.  The gifts have it.