A sweet Christmas story...

Emma's school has a "Christmas Shop" where the kids can purchase small, inexpensive gifts for their family. She got to go one Monday early in December to "preview" what they had and actually got to shop 2 days later. She came home after the preview with a list - names of family members on one side and the item she wished to buy along with it's cost on the other. She showed it to me so that I would know how much money to send in on her shopping day. I was a bit dismayed when I saw "earrings $3.00" written next to my name because every time I wear earrings my ears get infected unless they are the really good kind and I doubted $3 earrings ranked in that category.

As fortune would have it, Lucy and I had been playing dress up earlier that day while Emma was away at school and she graciously offered to share a play set of earrings with me. I told Lucy that she should wear them because I didn't like earrings. She asked me why and I told her that earrings made my ears hurt.

Sometime between Emma's arrival home from school and bedtime, she must have discussed her choice of gifts for me with Lucy because as I was putting Emma to bed she said, "Lucy said you don't like earrings but the ones I want to get you are so beautiful I know you will want to wear them forever and ever."

My heart melted. Emma's autism makes it hard for her to think of others and she rarely shows any genuine emotion. Between her autistic tendencies and always being in a hurry, "Bye, bye. Love you," is about as good as it gets and I'm not even sure she knows what she's saying as I've heard her say that when she flushes the toilet. That being said, I was really touched.

When Emma came home the day she shopped she carefully placed the gifts she purchased under the tree. As she held the box with my name on it she told me, "The blue flower earrings I wanted for you were already sold. I had to get you something else. I'll give you a hint, it's something you wear."

Everytime I saw the box under the tree I admit I hoped it wasn't earrings. If it was, how could I not wear them? I made sure we had Neosporin just in case.

When Christmas morning arrived Emma handed me the box. When I took off the wrapping paper I saw a shiny silver box and inside was a bracelet and a matching pair of earrings. I thanked her and tried to hug her but she was on to the next thing and that was that. I put the bracelet on and have worn it almost continuously since. The earrings...well...a few days ago she asked me why I hadn't worn them. I told her I was saving them for a time that I dressed up. I did wear them last Sunday when we celebrated Christmas with my mom. I had to take them out right after dinner as my ears started to hurt. Emma didn't seem to notice, or at least she didn't comment.

Since then they have been sitting on my dresser in the little silver box they came in. I caught Emma looking at them yesterday. As I passed by she spoke to me but kept her eyes on the box with the earrings in it. "The blue flower earrings I wanted for you were already sold. I had to get you something else. I chose these because of the box. It is so sparkley - I knew you would love it." She stood there for a few more minutes just admiring the box and I stood there just admiring her.