The Ghost of Christmas Past

Let me bring you back to a Christmas past...

The ex and I were pretty darn poor. He wanted a scanner for his computer. I knew how much he wanted this, so I skipped lunch for a couple of months to save up the money to buy one. On Christmas day, he showered me with gifts.

I behaved nicely and graciously, but I knew that all of the gifts had been put on plastic – the last amount of credit he had. His card was completely maxed out. I felt foolish that I had one gift for him, but it was the best I could do. He opened it, and said, “Thanks.”

He proceeded to disappear into the other room for about an hour. I could tell something was up.
 
I finally knocked on the door to see what was wrong.

“I’m disappointed,” he said. "I worked so hard to make it a nice Christmas for you. I wish you had bought me a lot of little things instead of just one thing.”

I couldn’t believe it. I had freakin’ starved during lunch for TWO MONTHS, and it STILL wasn’t good enough for him. AND when I give gifts, I don’t expect an equal amount in return. In fact, I don’t expect anything. I enjoy giving gifts just for the sake of giving! But wait, this was the ex, and he clearly had different philosophies on giving and receiving.

Several years later...
 
It was Christmas time again. And once again, money was extremely tight (shocking, I know). Correction, money was tight for ME. Ex seemed to have plenty of it. My budget for the holiday was about $300.00. That included our son, my family, and the lovely old ex. I tried to get ideas from him about what he might like, which was nearly impossible, because the man bought everything for himself two seconds after it went on sale. My ex’s answer for what he wanted?
“I want THIS drill.” He showed me the ad. It cost $329.00. “Um, P, that drill costs more than my whole holiday budget.” He replied, “Oh well, that’s what I want.”