Thread by @HoarseWisperer

The day before Christmas, my 12-year old and I were having breakfast.

We had errands to run afterwards. It was Christmas Eve and there were last-minute things to buy and pick up.

As we talked, he told me that he wanted to get something for his mother.

1/

So, I asked what he was thinking.

He turned it over in his mind a bit and was quiet for a while.

“Maybe I could get her a locket...”

...for a picture of him, I assumed.

Seemed like a sweet thought in the typical way kids see a gift of themselves as the best gift of all.

2/

But then he went on “...for a picture of her mom.”

My mother-in-law passed away when my son was a toddler. Last week would have been her birthday.

It’s a hard anniversary for his mother.

I choked up and said “That sounds like a great gift... Let’s go look for one.”

3/

So we finished our breakfast and set off. Our other errands could wait.

Now, if you’ve been following my other personal posts, you may have seen that my son hurt his knee a few weeks ago.

He’s in a brace and lumbering around and on crutches.

4/

He is managing to get around though and how hard could it be to stop into a store and buy a locket?

Harder than I thought apparently.

Took three towns and four stores before we found one.

5/

Then we went home and sifted through pictures to find two he liked.

Resized them on my laptop and hustled off to CVS in the dwindling shopping hours of Christmas Eve to get them printed out.

Home to trim and wrap. Gift complete.

6/

My son’s mother and I are divorced.

We’ve been divorced for years.

Still, taking my son shopping for that locket - and helping him turn it into his gift to his mother - is the most Christmasy thing I did this year.

7/

Later that night when the gift was already wrapped and his coat pocket for Christmas delivery, I looked at the app on my phone.

We put in a mile of walking.

My son: getting around on crutches to shop for his mom

Me: helping my son shop for my ex-wife

8/

It was a gift for his mother but it was also a gift of sorts to me.

I knew what it would mean to his mother.

I was touched by the thoughtfulness of it. I still am.

It gave me a chance to just live in the joyful warmth of loving and being proud of your child.

9/

So, there were gifts given and received this year.

My best, the one I’ll remember, wasn’t a gift. It was a shopping trip.

Me and my son. Christmas Eve. Him on crutches. Shopping for a gift for his mother. My ex-wife.

A silver locket with two pictures of his grandmother.

10/

The grandmother I once drove 500 miles to see out of fear I wouldn’t get the chance to tell her how much she meant to me as her health worsened.

The grandmother who taught me how to swaddle him as an infant.

The grandmother who adored him.

His mother’s mother.

11/

There are things we give and get at Christmas. Some memorable. Some not.

For me, as a father though, as someone who adores this job - the role of it, the work, the challenge of raising a young man - this was about as good as it gets.

You did good, kid. I’m proud of you.

12/12