Amazing Holiday Gifts

[Inishfree]

Thought I would start this thread a few days before Christmas and everyone can post.  Amazing gifts we have given or recieved for any holiday, religious or otherwise.

I recieved an early Christmas present from my grand daughter and her parents.  Since, they will be traveling out of the country during the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

Two tickets to see Celtic Woman!  I love them.

[theocean]

Oh nice Inishfree, i've seen them on PBS, you will have a great time, what a nice gift..
I am giving a few homemade gifts besides some store bought ones, i've made homemade
snowglobes and i am making homemade scented bath salts..fun to give...

[Blue Silken Sky]

Inish: I really like when the gift is an experience, especially when the giver is taking a leap of faith and thinking, "I hope my loved one will enjoy this!"

And Ocean, homemade gifts are awesome! The creativity, patience, and thoughtfulness required to make something are a gift in themselves.

In my family, it's the being there that counts. I'm very fortunate to have 3 weeks off every Christmas and a car that can carry me the 430 miles to the family home, but sometimes the rest of the family can't make it.  This year, my mom booked a rental car for my brother who lives about 250 miles away but doesn't have a vehicle.  Although he couldn't be with the family on Christmas (working), that car rental allowed him to spend four days with us.  We're quite scattered geographically, but this year I was able to take a holiday photo with both of my brothers for the first time in perhaps ten years.

[theocean]

Blue Silken Sky, thats awesome about everyone getting together from afar and getting that
nice photo...we have a photo of the horses down the road when my daughter took photography
in school, its priceless, the horses are looking just the right angle almost as if posing, it was a
present she made for me...dont get me going on my dog and cat posing for Christmas!

[Inishfree]

These are beautiful gift ideas and I love hand made presents.  I crochet and made my mom an afghan.  She is in a nursing home, so there isn't alot of space in her room.

[theocean]

I love homemade afghans....they are so cozy Inishfree....i never got good at making
booties yet, maybe next year!

[Inishfree]

My daughter in law gave me some homemade cookies.  She only uses organic and natural ingredients.  No preserves.  These cookies are fantastic!  I love them. She is an incredible baker and really should open a bakery.   

[_acrobat]

I'm getting my dad (who's also a big U2 fan) Passengers, which he's never heard of

[theocean]

My daughter is an amazing artist and drew beautiful pics for the family and framed them
and also made homemade ornaments...*proud Mom*

[EnduringChill]

I got a concert ukulele, the second smallest ukulele size. I love it, but need to learn to play it...

[Belisama]

Years ago for Christmas a very busy and elusive friend told me to book off a day and meet him for breakfast. He handed me my gift which was a beautiful appointment book, however I was a little annoyed as I flipped through it and thought he had regifted me something because the book had writing in it. Of course the writing in the book was from him as well. He had written in on certain days "dates" for us; things like February 11, Take Beckey (his nickname for me) to lunch for her birthday; May 23rd, Movie with B. etc. Most of the dates just had entries like "Hang out with B." And of course most importantly he kept every single one of those dates. What touched me the most was that here was a friend who knew the one thing I wanted most was his company and he thought enough of our friendship to make that happen.

[jenniferh aka jen]

Years ago for Christmas a very busy and elusive friend told me to book off a day and meet him for breakfast. He handed me my gift which was a beautiful appointment book, however I was a little annoyed as I flipped through it and thought he had regifted me something because the book had writing in it. Of course the writing in the book was from him as well. He had written in on certain days "dates" for us; things like February 11, Take Beckey (his nickname for me) to lunch for her birthday; May 23rd, Movie with B. etc. Most of the dates just had entries like "Hang out with B." And of course most importantly he kept every single one of those dates. What touched me the most was that here was a friend who knew the one thing I wanted most was his company and he thought enough of our friendship to make that happen.

[jenniferh aka jen]

I gave my brother one of those ball throwing things for his dog. My brother has to have surgery on his back soon and I figured this would be helpful for him because he has a 2 year old lab with way too much energy!

[Belisama]

Jen, what a wonderful idea!

I would say the best gift I have given was those times I didn't think I could make the trek up to see my family for the holidays and then at the last minute did it anyway and surprised everyone. I felt like "Peter" in that Folger's commercial!

However the best actual gift I ever gave was to my mother. Her favorite Christmas carol was The Little Drummer Boy. She was minorly obsessed with it-- she had a collection of Drummers, we always had to watch the special, listen to the song-- she was def a Larry Girl. When I was 12 I worked for a hairdresser who did a lot of crafts. One sommer we were at the local craft store and saw a crewel work of TLB. Carol offered to teach me embrodery so I could make this for my mother as a Christmas gift. I spent the entire summer learning to satin stitch and French Knot and barely by Dec 25th finished the project. My mother cried for over an hour when she opened it and even more so when she realized I had learned embroidery just for her. She is gone now but I still have the piece and it remind me of my mother and going the extra mile for my loved ones.

[theocean]

What a beautiful story about your Mom Bels...