Inspired gifting

Every once in a while, I will get a gift for a friend or a family member that really speaks to me. Only once, have I been told that the gift was very special and meaningful. I distinctly remember thinking it was weird giving a teddy bear to my early-20's friend, but that I needed to get it for her. If I remember the story correctly, she has received a teddy bear from a family member or members every year. That year she didn't get one, and the one I sent was the one she got that year and it meant a lot to her. Other than that, I am not sure if my particular "ah-haaa" moments were shared in the receiving of gifts.

This year at Christmas, my family and I happened to receive some gifts that I feel were inspired gifts.

Matt and I both received a dutch oven set and a bread maker. We have both become lovers of cooking now that we have a kitchen that has room to move around in. We have both enjoyed the dutch ovens and have used the bread maker almost every day.

My mom was inspired this year to go old school and she managed to find my siblings and I books that we loved as kids.

This, my friends, was my favorite book as a kid. I loved reading it and I loved reading it to Tyne and scaring her. She in turn read it to Bethany and scared her with it. I CAN NOT believe my mom not only remembered this book, but that she found more than one copy. I ended up finding the original copy we had as kids in our storage bays we cleaned out after our fire.

I know that this is a favorite of children every where. Linus is no exception. He loves to have Grandpa Kirk read it to him and he is getting to where he'll point to EVERY little thing and ask "this?". He is starting to learn the words for things and wants to know the names of every thing now.

This may be Linus's favorite book to hear and my favorite book to read. Our favorite line is "And sometimes the mother said, 'This kid is driving me CRAZY!' " He and I giggle and giggle at that and so I say it after 2 years old, 9 years old, and teenager. And sometimes I cry when I read it to him. I found out by reading author, Robert Munsch's website on this book, that he didn't write this as a children's book at all. He and his wife lost two babies, and the song "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living, My baby you'll be" ran around and around in his head. One day he told the story aloud and sang the song that ran in his head. It got written and next thing he knew, a community for the elderly where children were not allowed had bought copies and everyone had one. Soon, it was a hit. You can read that story and listen to his telling of the story here.

Linus received a cool retro toy that he is just now figuring out how the pieces go in.

My brother made a plate that is a decorative wall hanging. I will at one point edit this and put a picture of it. Right now, I haven't taken a picture of it, nor do I have the gumption to do so. But, it is awesome and it fits with the color scheme of our house.

Matthew gave me "LittleBigPlanet" which is an AWESOME game for the PS3.

I had been playing the demo and just couldn't stand that I couldn't go further, so I kept playing the demo. I could play that game all day, everyday. Luckily for me, I have kids to take care of so I don't grow mold from sitting in the same place for so long.

There were a few other things that really just seemed perfect as gifts this last Christmas. I don't have pictures of them all, but, it really was awesome this last Christmas.