“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