sorry for the spelling, GW, How about an EDIT BUTTON??

What a wonderful thoughtful gift. I am sure they will appreciate it. Several years ago I put together a family history in photos for my children and my niece and nephew. They loved it.

mine isn't sentimental or anything, but my little girl is a flamingo freak...she just goes crazy about everything flamingo. In fact last week she said to me "mom, i think i have 2 hearts- one has flamingos in it and one has Jesus in it" and this year her letter to santa was for lots of flamingo presents. anyway.. i was able to find a 6 foot tall giant flamingo on ebay for a very reasonable price, and i am so excited to give it to her..with our family having to deal with cancer this year, i am anxious for some happy excitement! She deserves it!

When my oldest daughter was a child she had a fav. book. A few years ago she looked and looked through all my books and couldn't find it. She searched the internet and since it was out of print it was VERY expensive. A co-teacher of mine came to me when she found out my plight and said she had 2 copies and I could have one. Christmas morning I gave it to DD#1 and she cried like a baby. I found out the co-teachers DH had just lost his job and I gave her $100. She said she paid $1. for it at a garage sale. She tried to give the money back, but I told her I'd have to give her the book back if she didn't take the money. She cried like a baby. We all cried!! It was bittersweet.

Last night I gave daughter #1 a gift, it was just a purse. I had intended it for DD#2 but DD2 saw it and said "I don't like that. It's not my taste." Since the jig was up anyway, I offereed it to DD1 and she says she loves it. And I never even had to wrap it.

I have two! First, I have been collecting the new quarters for 6 of my GK's & after TEN yrs the books are done! Yippee

Then, I have a neighbor man that lost his job & he has 8 cats--I think he does with out to feed his cats---soooo, my sis & I bought $50 worth of cat food & we'll sneak it on his porch & leave a note from Santa!

Donna (^_^)

We just couldn't wait for Christmas, so in early December our daughter and family got new phones and we got her a new sewing machine. She has been wanting the Winnie the Pooh cartridge for her Cricut. We had given her birthday money which she saved and in the 25th drawer of the advent box of drawers I made for her, will be the remainder of what she needs to purchase it.She will be thrilled.

I am looking forward to giving my youngest son's girlfriend her gifts. He told me the brand of clothing she wears, so I ordered her several tops from them. She has 5 brothers and 3 sisters, so I would imagine they don't have a huge Christmas. I am really looking forward to her opening all of them.

I am looking forward to seeing DH's face when he opens the XBox 360 that he mentioned. I think I have him on that one! I got it for him from my boys.

I can't mention the other one...she posts here. LOL

I just love Christmas...I know it isn't all about the gifts, but I just love watching everyone open their gifts. I really truly don't care if I even get anything.

The gift I'm giving everyone is coming about a month after Christmas! I doubt Camryn will feel the need to make her presence known during all the Christmas festivities! LOL

But I'm excited to give my DH his gift. He loves watching Nascar races so I'm sending him and his dad (and my mom is sending my dad) to Vegas for a weekend of Nascar races. It's something he'd want to do but would probably never do for himself.

This is from a few years ago, my MIL was looking for a specific book and couldn't find it anywhere (and she is persistent!) She mentioned it to me and I figured it would be my mission to find it. So I checked all the normal spots and Ebay was the ONLY place on this planet that had it. And they had 2! I got sniped at the last second on the first one, but on the second one I had to be mean and snipe the other person, so I won! I was so excited, and MIL knew how much trouble it was to find it! She still talks about it to this day.

And that was the one and only thing I've ever bought on Ebay! lol

Linda and Donna-Those sound like awesome presents!!!

Giving my grandson Connor his Polar Express trian set. He
loves the movie. I can't wait to see his face. He'll be
3yrs old in Feb.

Good thread! I love all your stories. Linda, you must give us a follow-up after Christmas.

In 2005, when my husband died, I gave each of the kids one last Christmas present from their father. It felt good to do it, and they loved the idea.

This year I'm doing the same thing for my cousin Terry's daughters. I sent the package off yesterday, with a note saying I'm confident they'll have no trouble of thinking of these gifts as coming to them from their mother, because I feel that's exactly the way it happened.

You know how some people are just crazy about Gee You Hair Smells Terrific shampoo which was discontinued many years ago? Over the years I've seen that shampoo mentioned over and over again as something people want brought back.

Well, that's how my daughter is about Avon's Peach Creme Parfait shampoo which also has been discontinued for many years. She was reminiscing about it a couple months ago. I managed to find three bottles of it. Boy is she going to be surprised and thrilled.

Jodi-

Books must be a popular thing! LOL DH has been fascinated for years about the Edmund Fitzgerald ship sinking. I got him 2 books on it. I know he won't be able to guess and believe me he guesses and is RIGHT about 99.9 percent of his gifts! He's no fun! LOL

Drew (age4)is obsessed with this Wheelie Cycle, that is ALL he's talked about for over a month already. I posted on another board about a conversation he and his Mommie had. Drew was telling her how he was going to ask Santa to bring him a Wheelie Cycle, his Mommie said Oh Drew that is **very** expensive, it costs alots (thats Drew speak) of money. Drew says well how much does it cost? Mommie said *$80.00!* He had faith tho, his reply was "wellll, I betcha Santa has $80! LOL
SO I am very anxious to see Drew's reaction to his Wheelie Cycle! I know it will be even better than DH's reaction to the books! LOL

My favorite was the year I got all the old 8mm home movies from the back of my grandparents' closet and had them put on to VHS for my parents (before DVDs). My dad... with hair! I couldn't wait to give that to them so we could all watch it together. My dad cried, and not over the hair. ;o) The whole process was special b/c of the stories my grandmother had to tell while we were looking through boxes for them.

DH has become totally addicted to the Food Network. He watches cooking shows and the competitions like most guys watch sports. Plus he's become an awesome cook! Yea for me!
For Christmas I found a set of 5 specialty sea salts. They are all supposed to taste different and I know he will have a blast using them. Only $14 but this is the gift I and sure he will be surprised and excited about. I can hardly wait!!!

When my only daughter was 30 plus,I found one of those "To My Daughter" books,where you just write everything from your heart that you can remember from the day you found out you were pregnant up to present.It took me months to write everything I felt and why she was so special to me etc...also adding pictures and little momentos ie her first tooth I had saved etc.I just barely got it finished for her for Christmas,but the look on her face when she opened and started reading it was priceless...Oh yes,there were lots of happy tears shed,and it took awhile for her to absorb it all,but she says it was her favorite gift of all time.

My favorite isn't sentimental or awwwwwww, but I did manage to find something my daughter will love. She has two poodles and is a huge Obama supporter, so I'm giving her a dog dish that says *Poodles for Obama* and I'll bet she loves it. Cafepress.com has all sorts of good stuff.

I have a niece with 4 small kids and a jerk of an ex-husband. They seldom can eat out. Each year at Christmas time I send a check to their local pizza place in their town and pay for them to go twice. I have done this several years and they still don't know where it is coming from. To hear them talk about it is thanks enouigh.

Have a wonderful holiday everyone...

Susie

My best friends daughter sang at my husbands funeral (back in June). My daughter mentioned that she wished Eirene would record it and put it on a CD. My friend and I took her to a studio a little over a week ago, and I picked up the CD's last Monday night. The guy even did the cover for me. Eirene's picture is on the front, there's a picture of Ronnie on the inside with "In Remembrance of Ronnie" wrote on it. I'll be giving one copy to our daugher and one to my MIL!

My daughter is 38 y.o. (so not a kiddie, lol) and I never, ever know what to get her.

This year I bought a big picture frame and several Scrabble sets. I glued all sorts of "memory" words (i.e., schools she went to, school teams, school sports, street names that we lived on, pet names, etc.). She was always our Scrabble champ so I'm thinking this will have a lot of memories for her.

Looks pretty neat too. Just like a Scrabble game in progress.

We had our Christmas get together today. Three of dh's four kids and our grandkids were here. I always invite dh's ex to join us too. They were divorced several years before I married him and we get along great. When they divorced Bob kept a lot of photos of the kids when they were young and also his wedding pictures from when he married the ex.

I made her a scrapbook with a lot of the older photos of theirs, including a couple of the wedding pictures. I had assumed she also had a copy of the old family pictures in a box or book, but found out today she did not. Well, she does now!! The kids and grand kids gathered around as she looked through the book. She cried. I didn't expect that!! The kids had never seen their parents' wedding photos and the grandkids got a big kick out of seeing their moms and dads as young kids. I've spent a lot of time the past couple of months working on her scrapbook as well as one for dh and my mom and stepdad, but seeing the reactions to them has made it well worth while.

Here's one of the pictures I was able to get of some of them looking at the book.

{{!gwi}}

Most of you know my mom died just two months ago, and we are all still devastated. I dug out my old home movies---some of them 30 years old---and made DVDs for my sisters, their children, and my mom's sister, all of whom spent countless hours with us at the hospital during Mom's last week. The videos include footage of my mom...and seeing those old video has been very helpful to me in the grieving/healing process. I also bought each of them an ornament and printed them the below story, which I'd never shared with anyone.

MY NOTE TO THEM:
About this time of year in 1987, Mom sent me a letter. She and Poppy lived in Florida at the time, and she wanted to explain about a Christmas ornament that accompanied her letter.

Funds were extremely short that year. There was no money for Christmas gifts, but she wanted to send me something. She explained that she had lots of Tiara, but that "pretty things, clothes, etc., go away or you tire of the color or whatever, and they are gone." She was also feeling very sentimental because of losing her own mom earlier that year. Mom's letter read:

"I was thinking of the little gifts Mom sent us each year that always meant so much to me and the other girlsÂthings we still cherish. So I decided to send you something that you could have from now on (and on and on), and every year you can hang my ornament on your tree and say, ÂMy mom gave me this. And maybe youÂll always feel me and Dad are there with you whether we are here or somewhere else. IÂve have had this a long while. I donÂt know why I bought it and never used it. But it just seemed like a little memento I wanted you to have. I feel it is a little treasure IÂve buried and put in a safe place. I know it will be guarded and loved. You wonÂt use it enough to tire of it, and I (and Dad) will always be remembered for a long time to come."

So every Christmas for the past 20 years, I have read her letter (and cried) and hung that ornament on my tree (and cried some more). This year was no differentÂexcept I cried a little harder and a little longer. Now I know just how badly her heart ached for her mama.

I bought you a little ornament this year because I know thatÂlike meÂyou love and miss ÂBÂ so much. Maybe youÂll drag it out once a year, hang it on your tree, and remember meÂand remember herÂand remember that little things mean a lot, but our loved ones mean the most.

And I hope the DVD brings you as much joy as it brought me when I put it together for you.

MERRY CHRISTMAS WITH LOVE,
Rita
December 2008

Justlinda, what a wonderful idea! Now I know what to do for a couple of upcoming birthdays.

Rita, your post really got to me; I'm still choked up. Absolutely beautiful.