Search Results for: blog too many gifts

Cute Handmade Mother’s Day Gifts (Inexpensive, Too!)

Handmade gifts, especially when they mark milestones in your child’s life can be lovely. You’ll find yourself years from now looking at them and remembering back to earlier times. I have a small collection of these gifts, and they always make me smile. For example, there is the wax cast of my first-born’s hand when he was only two. We were at a festival, and the vendor didn’t want to cast anyone under the age of four because children that age tend not to hold still. We insisted and said we would take it, no matter how it came out. … Continue reading →

Three Gifts for Christmas

Three Gifts for Christmas Have you ever found an extra stash of Christmas gifts after Christmas? I’m embarrassed to admit that I have. Nestled in a corner of our bedroom closet was a bag of a couple of items that I had bought for Christmas and then completely forgot about. A growing tradition in many families takes its prompt from the three gifts that the wise men, or magi gave to the baby Jesus. Here is what the tradition of giving gifts the way that the wise men did, and how it can be very meaningful for your family, too. … Continue reading →

Christmas Gifts for Your Irish Relatives

This year, give your family members a gift that reflects their heritage. A gift that reminds people of their heritage, and the country that their ancestors came from, will be more meaningful than a gift card could ever be! Here are some great gift suggestions that genealogists can give to their Irish relatives. Christmas is closer than you might think! Now is the time to plan out the gifts that you intend to give to relatives. Get started on the handmade gifts right away! Keep in mind that gifts that you purchase online will require time for shipping. Here are … Continue reading →

Preschool Etiquette: Opening Gifts

It is an exciting time of year for most preschoolers with many looking forward to opening Christmas gifts. Small children just cannot wait for Christmas morning when a bunch of gifts are set before them to tear into. The excitement their little faces when they open the gift they have been waiting for or an unexpected surprise. They show such joy just opening a simple gift. Conversely, they show their true emotions when opening a gift they do not like. Sometimes they can be quite vocal or simply turn their nose up and say nothing at all. The last thing … Continue reading →

Too Many Gifts

I love Christmas, I really do, but I can’t help but wonder how much longer it will be the holiday we all remember from childhood. Every year the stores bring out the decorations earlier and earlier. Christmas trees are up in the stores before the school supplies are even gone. Everything is advertised as that perfect gift for someone on your list. Have we forgotten what Christmas is about? All day long I hear people talking and read online about the shopping, shopping and more shopping. The amount of debt Americans take on every Christmas is staggering. I’m as guilty … Continue reading →

Baked Gifts

Yesterday began the baking extravaganza. Every year my best friend and I spend two full days baking and freezing for Christmas. We make so many cookies that by the end of the two days we never want to see another cookie. It’s so much fun though and our kids look forward to it every year. As you can imagine it’s quite a mess. At the end of the day the kitchen looks like a bakery exploded so through the years we have come up with some ways to keep the mess under control. The number one thing is to keep … Continue reading →

Mother’s Day Gifts From the Heart

Here’s something any mother can appreciate: Last week my first grader came home with a Xeroxed note from school asking for a “favorite family recipe.” The letter cryptically added that the assignment was part of a “top secret” project students were working on and not to ask too many questions. Given the timing of the note and the fact that I received a very similar one the year before when my daughter was in kindergarten it didn’t take much for me to deduce that I will likely be opening a kid-friendly cookbook this coming Sunday. I will wait until a … Continue reading →

Valentine’s Day Love: How Young is Too Young?

When my brother was in the sixth grade he socked away four months’ worth of allowance and added it to two months’ worth of salary he earned as a paperboy. Then, a week before Valentine’s Day, he and my mom went to a local jewelry store where my brother proceeded to fork over his life savings to purchase a gold chain with a matching jewel encrusted letter “M” charm, for a girl named Michelle. Michelle was to my brother what the little red-haired girl was to Charlie Brown. Out. Of. His. League. Sad story short, after purchasing the necklace, wrapping … Continue reading →

More Gifts

One of the things that is always tricky around the holidays (and I think especially with children) is the commercialization that is bound up in the season. While Christmas itself predates the onslaught of advertisements we experience through all forms of media now, there is no doubt that the season has been affected by marketing and money. One of the things that becomes difficult is the question of “how much?”. How much is too much? In terms of money or simply quantity (is the closet overflowing?) the question of how much is an important one. Our son is not, by … Continue reading →

Gifts from the Garden

In the food blog I looked at the idea of handmade Christmas gifts, but what about some Christmas gifts from your garden? If you started off cuttings now, it gives them a few weeks to get established. We have three huge hanging baskets near our back door filled with the most beautiful plant that flower in mauve flowers rather like a violet only larger and they flower all year round in the shade. They look brilliant. They all started from one little cutting from a friend that grew to be enough for one hanging basket. We then took cuttings from … Continue reading →