Appreciated

It's the appreciation season again. My students have started bringing me Christmas gifts. It was the most amazing thing, the first year I taught school. My desk was laden and overflowing with presents from my class. I don't know why I was surprised. Every year I made gifts for my own children's teachers. I suppose the shock was in seeing the result of the other parents' efforts all in one place. I really, really appreciated their sentiments, too.

Today in Miss Manners' column in the Washington Post, was this letter:
I am a teacher among many in a small, affluent private school. Many of the parents of our students freely, by their own choice, give gifts to teachers at Christmas and/or the end of the school year. The thoughts behind these gifts are appreciated by us all.

However, the gifts vary. Some are touching and personal, and others end up in the “re-gifting” cycle. To further complicate the issue, the needs on the part of the faculty differ, and some of us truly want and need the gifts, while others would rather see the gifts go to charity, so among ourselves we do not all look at the question the same way.

Taking all of this into account, the question of our “suggesting” the nature of these gifts or putting a policy in our school handbook has been discussed among ourselves. Is there a polite or appropriate way to put forward the idea of these gifts being discontinued, or going, for example, to the local soup kitchen instead of to us? Or should we just appreciate things as they are?

Miss Manners pointed out that the obvious solution---refuse all gifts--was not proposed by the writer...Ahem.

See, it doesn't matter what the gift is. I know that it was given with utmost love and sincerity. So I accept them with extreme gratitude and sincere thanks. I may recycle many of them straight to my favorite thrift store, but I am thrilled (genuinely) by the fact that they have brought me a gift. That is the important thing.

However, my favorite gift today was not wrapped nor purchased from a store. Today, as we were coming back in from lunch to our classroom, one of my fellows, who was trailing at the very end of the line, slid over close to me and said, "Mrs. [EarthSignMama], do you know what I like about you? You're always cheerful. Even when you're mad at us, you do it in a cheerful way. How do  you do it?"  I laughed and he said, "See?" Well, I work hard at being cheerful, and apparently, someone noticed.

Appreciation: the best gift of all.