Buy Your Own Present!

 

 A gracious ninety-year-old grandmother was struggling with the hectic pace of Christmas shopping and made a decision. She would no longer send presents. Instead, she would send Christmas cards and include a check with each one so that her friends and family could purchase their own presents.

 

She carefully prepared each card and wrote the following:

Then sent all the cards well before Christmas. Strangely, no one ever made any mention of having received a card. When some of her family visited her during Christmas, she asked them if they received her cards. They were polite but not enthusiastic. They acknowledged that they had received cards but barely even thanked her.



A year later, as she was preparing to send cards again, she made a grievous discovery. Underneath a pile of Christmas papers, she found all the checks. She had never included the checks in the cards.

Oops!