Sunday, December 13, 2009

The most memorable gifts of all


This time of year I am always stumped trying to think of the perfect gift for each member of the family. Long ago we made a Thanksgiving Day afternoon tradition that made shopping a bit easier for all of us.

The kids sat down with newspaper ads and catalogs and cut out pictures of the toys they wanted.  Each child put his name at the top of a sheet of paper (like school but way more fun) and taped these snippets of desire onto the pages. They were encouraged to include the store name where it could be found, and after all hope of Santa had dissolved, we asked them to jot down the price as well for comparison shopping.

It is hard this year. The kids have kids of their own. Even one of the grandkids has kids of his own. And the rest of the grandkids are getting big so fast, they are growing away from my influence with all their busy days. I'm not as in touch with their wants, needs and day-dreams as I was a few years ago so it is hard to choose just the right thing. I only have one toddler left to buy for and that is just plain fun!

So, I find myself wondering what would Mama do? Grandmothers are supposed to be tops when it comes to gift giving.

The grandmother gift I will never forget is one my mother gave my oldest son. It was a bird's nest, complete with hatched robin's egg shells (mostly there). He looked at me like "is she mad?" but he still has that birds nest... at age 47.  It is one gift neither of us can forget.

2 comments:

Susan Adcox said...

I'm not a big fan of buying the grandchildren what they ask for. Lots of times the toys they want are the ones that have been hyped on TV. The manufacturers have spent so much money on advertising that the toy costs much more than it should, and it often is not nearly so much fun as it looks on TV. I'd rather buy the grandkids something that I've picked out that I think they will like. And they usually do.

ConnieFoggles said...

Knowing you Pat, you'll come up with the best gifts ever! It's all in the heart that's why.