I guess you could say that my grandmother Swift was one of the original “re-gifters”.  Every year at Christmas, my parents and my aunts and uncles would receive gifts from my grandmother.  Unfortunately, these were not gifts that she had made or purchased, these were gifts that she had taken from our houses.

For example, she might find a pickle dish buried in that back of my mothers cupboard.  And, since it hadn’t been used in awhile, she would take it.  Then at Christmas, she would wrap up the dish and give to my aunt.

It wasn’t until we had a family gathering at my aunts that the truth would come out.  My mother would look at the pickle dish and comment that she has one just like it.  Then, everyone would get a funny look on their faces and the gift would be returned to their rightful owner.

Eventually, it became a Christmas tradition.  My parents and aunts and uncles would get together after Christmas to return the gifts that grandma had given them.

Every now and then, grandma would forget whose house she had taken the item from and would give it back to the original owner as a gift.  This, of course, was a dead give away as the owner of the gift would recognize it right away.

But, after a few years, she was giving gifts that nobody could claim.  So, we had to wonder where she was getting them from.  The neighbors perhaps?  She traveled a lot visiting distant relatives so it was hard to say.

My grandmother Swift was a very generous person.