A Christmas Treasure Box Wrapped in Love

When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things - not the great occasions - give off the greatest glow of happiness.  ~Bob Hope

I've been having a great time sharing forward some of the stories you've shared with me about the best and at times, the worst gifts you've given or received when you entered my Christmas Giveaway. (Check out my website News and Events page for details if you haven't entered and would like to. It's easy.) 

Our Christmas celebration with our kids and grandkids was Saturday. We celebrate early because some of my kids had to work Monday and so need to make the travel home on a weekend. Also they all need to have the special time as families around their own Christmas trees on Christmas morning. 

Forever Friends
 
We had a fun family day of food and gifts and connecting. Because my children live in different states they don't get to see each other as often as they would like. When I grew up I saw some of my cousins nearly every week and we had so much fun together. Other cousins lived away and we only saw them a couple of times a year. That's the way it is with my grandkids. They only see each other a few times a year so it's fun for me to watch them connecting at Christmas. I suppose all mothers want their children and grandchildren to be forever friends, to know that wonderful bond of family. For grandparents, that might be the best part of Christmas. We're no longer eager for gifts, however nice they are and we did get some nice ones. But the best gift is seeing our family together. 

It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.  ~W.T. Ellis

Some Best Gifts

Still we do fill those boxes and wrap them up in pretty paper and hope the people tearing into them will find some joy in the contents. So here are some of the presents you've told me were the best you gave or received.

Alla says she treasures the nativity set she got when she was a newlywed. 

Dawn says books and the gift of reading is a present hard to beat and I agree. I give all my grandkids and kids a book every year and hope I've found stories that will spark that reading joy.

Carolyn says, "One of my best Christmases was when I was eight years old (I am now 70 years old). I badly wanted a blue parakeet for Christmas. You can imagine my joy when I received one. I named him Chippy and he lived until I was 18 years old. He was the best bird I ever had and a true friend."

And Tish says it's hard to beat a puppy as the best gift. This is my little granddaughter checking out puppies at her aunt's house. The puppy is much too little for gift giving right now, but it's easy to see it would be a pleasing present for her.    

Here's a story from Susan about a special family gift to her parents.

"One year for Christmas my sisters and I gave our parents sweatshirts with all the grandkids' handprints on them.  One of the best things about that was that Mother and Daddy carried them all over Texas and didn't know what they were. I put my kids' handprints on them, then boxed them up. My parents were going to see my sister, so I asked them to take the box to her.  She put her kids' handprints on them and boxed them back up. When my parents left her house to go see my other sister, she asked them to take the box and give it to her. After she did the same thing, she asked them to take it back to me. They were very confused as to why they were carrying this box to everybody and they didn't know what was in it. That was one of the best gifts.  Not only for the gift, but because of how it got to them."

Don't you know Susan's parents loved that gift and laughed about how they carried that treasure all over the country.

A Treasure Box of Love and Healing

 

Then last, we have a loving gift from one friend to another. I'll let Bobbe tell you about her gift. "I recently gave a Christmas and healing gift to a dear friend who unexpectedly and recently lost her 37 year old son to cancer. I call my gifts my treasure boxes of love and happiness. Since we grew up in the 50’s I enclosed lots of fun and funny things from that time period. I also added a set of Jacks and Balls so she could sit on the floor with her grandchildren and teach them some of our favorite Jacks games. Putting together lots of cute things from our childhood days as well as some practical things from today.

My goal was to take her mind off the pain and hurt by making her a Treasure box of Love and Healing. She was thrilled and can’t wait to have her grandchildren  join her in making and playing with all the fun things her box contains. So I think this is one of the best gifts I have given to a dear friend."

A gift wrapped in love is the best ever, and that's what Bobbe wrapped around her gift.

 

Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance.  It may weave a spell of nostalgia.  Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance - a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved.  ~Augusta E. Rundel  
 
Merry Christmas to all of you!  And thanks for reading. I love hearing from you all.

The Best Gifts are from the Heart

"The greatest gift is a portion of yourself." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I sent out my newsletter last Sunday letting my reading friends know about my Christmas giveaway contest and then I posted it here on Sunday night and the entries are rolling in. For fun, I asked you to share stories of the best or worst gift you have given anyone or perhaps received. The photo here shows the best gift a grandmother can get - a precious grandbaby. This was my first grandchild. After her, eight more came along and each got their picture under our tree as the best gift of the year. I'm not the only grandmother to feel this way and some of you have said that your best gift ever was a new baby born in December. 

As I always do when you share stories with me, I'm sharing some of them forward. 

Marcy knows that a grandbaby is the best gift ever and so this is the story she shared. "When I found out I was pregnant with my first son, it was early December (many years ago). Since my parents were both gone, I wanted to make the announcement special for my in-laws. I wrapped up little pink and blue baby socks for them for Christmas to tell them our happy news. Needless to say, they were thrilled."

What a fun way to announce a baby on the way!

Then Jane shares a best gift that she received from her mother. "I can't think of a gift I gave anyone that was the best or worst, but the best Christmas gift I ever got was a box full of baby clothes my mother bought for my first baby. He was due in April and she gave me the box for Christmas. I loved getting all the baby little things. It made that Christmas very special and you know, I still think of that gift every single year and my son is now 38 years old."

I wrote back to Jane that I remembered how much fun it was folding and refolding those little baby clothes I gathered and had in the cradle as I awaited the birth of my first baby. The little tiny t-shirts and those gowns with the drawstring bottoms. The soft yellow receiving blankets because then you didn't know if the baby would be a boy or girl until he or she made her way out into the world. Even the diapers were fun to fold then. Jane wrote back and added to her story.

"I spent some time thinking about gifts and realized that it's not always the expensive big ones but the most thoughtful ones that really are appreciated. I think that my Mom giving me that box of baby things just reinforced how much she cared and was looking forward to the baby too. I also remember looking at the little clothes and folding them over and over. Such a special time in our lives and wonderful memories."

 

Here are a couple of other sweet ideas for moms and grandmoms. Babs made a picture of her and her four boys and put it in a frame on a white mat. Then she and the boys each wrote something they loved about her mother on the mat. You can imagine how Babs' mother treasured that gift.

Ola did something sort of the same. She gave her sister-in-law, who loved jigsaw puzzles, a puzzle made from a picture of the sister-in-law's four kids. Don't you know that Mom enjoyed working that puzzle?

That's all this week, but more stories are on the way, including some worst gifts that are sure to bring smiles. If you haven't entered the contest yet, you still have plenty of time. Deadline for entries is midnight EST on December 30. You don't have to share a story to enter, but they are fun. Just let me know if you'd rather I didn't share the story forward. You can check out Sunday's post to see what the prizes are or look on my News and Events Website Page.Thanks for taking part in my Christmas fun. You are all a gift to me. 

Every gift from a friend is a wish for your happiness. ~Richard Bach