Oh there are so many things. A few that I like to receive and give are: 1) Herb Books, including Herbal Cookbooks; 2) Herb Magazine subscriptions; 3) Herbs, seeds and clippings; 4) Gardening gloves and tools; 5) Pots and potting soil; 6) Membership to the American Herb Society or any local botanical garden; 7) Herbal Teas with a nice tea cup; 8) Herbal Soaps, Bath Salts, lotions, candles, etc.; 9) Hand made herbal blends for teas, cooking and/or baths; Herbal vinegars, oils and butters; . . .and the list can go on and on! And it's always helpful to provide information with the gift on how to use it. Lots of people out there are afraid of herbs because they don't know how to use them. Happy Winter Holidays!

I LOVE your idea and can't wait to do the same with my grand daughter who is 2 years old now. I worked long hours while raising my three children alone and did a similar thing on much smaller scale with each of my three children - giving them each an hour or so alone with me each week. There things might be more activity than you would wish for but we have always loved the outdoors. My son had few interests and was the most difficult for me to connect with. Things he LOVED: flying a kite, roller skating, miniture golf, video games, rafting down a little fork of a nearby river that took us a number of weeks to build the raft from trashed lumber(bad time of year for you and I don't know where you live in Washington), BBQ breakfast on a tiny grill in the wilderness park (bacon on toast with hot cereal and fruit brought in a thermas was fast and easy then we would go hiking. I know you could take easy snacks without the trouble of the grill but he LOVED to eat hot food in the wide open spaces and it just tasted better there. Things he did not like but your grand son may: bicycle a along wetlands or beach or natural trail, walk thru a botanical garden, plant a tree (my carrotwood and palm trees were always dropping seedlings)in the countryside, scrapbooking, ceramics you mentioned, bought him a disposable camera and spent a day learning basis photography skills and taking pictures of family members, pets, friends, school or whatever he wished for a "My Life in 1974" (or whatever year it was), made a family tree collage from baby pictures of all the family members, built a bird house, bat house, visited the zoo, visited the farm that sells parrots, visited an ostrige farm, visited a llama farm, visited a turkey farm, had him write a story, and draw illistrations that I had bound into a book but now you can buy kits over Amazon.com for books you can have published and dishes they paint, send in and have made permanent. In fact, I have seen kits on Amazon.com to paint their own umberella, table lamp, cup, bird bath, bird feeder, bird house, etc. Also Home Depot or Lowes have kits for bird houses, bird feeders. I don't know if ANY of these ideas can work for you, but good look and I am sure you will get some GREAT suggestions. My girls LOVED to go for "high tea" where a friend of mine who owned a British tea house. (I was a nurse and massage/accupressurist and we would do trades). I do not know that your grandson would enjoy high tea. Also, the children LOVED to go to a really fancy restaurant (we could not afford to eat at) but on special occasions I would order each a Shirley Temple type of drink and we could overlook the harbor or bay to end a wonderful day. Oh, we use to drive to Disneyland and watch the grand finale fireworks in the Disneyland Hotel sipping a juice or milk. I don't know if you have anything in your area that you can get a "piece of".

Would you believe-- my kids are still young (9, 6, 4, 2 and one more coming soon), and I have this problem, too? How many things do we actually want or need? Most people I know have enough, or more than enough . . .we are middle class people, too. Not wealthy compared to the 1% in the US, but wealthy if you think about the rest of the world. I wrote about this on another thread, but I am keeping in mind what my friend does: something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read. Something you need could be something like some socks or gloves. I made a spreadsheet with each category for the kids so I could keep track of this. I also included some items like each of their dolls getting something, and a small family gift. Anyway, my friend uses this for her DH, too. IMO, there is always a let-down after the presents are unwrapped (even when I was a kid) so I want to make Christmas like a party. We had a Hallow e'en party this year w/others this year, and it was a lot of fun. While I won't be inviting others over for Christmas, I am going to plan activities as a party for US. Once the presents are done, there will still be cooking decorating, crafts, karaoke, etc. Whenever anyone would rather go play with their new x, of course, they can! My friend is having an open house, so that will help as well. My mom gives us $, but she always gives a physical gift, too, so that we have something to unwrap. I think it's fun to buy for my mom-- one of those people who does not have or want excess but has the means for it . . .this year we got her a Keurig coffee maker. Something she would NEVER buy for herself, but she likes to use ours when she comes over.

For our fiftieth, hub and I made reservations for two at a very fine restaurant. One of our daughters came to see us off and casually asked where we were going. We told her. When we arrived at the restaurant the owner seated us, presented a bottle of champagne, and told us dinner was a gift from our children. It was a very lovely surprise. The next night, they hosted another surprise party that included friends and family. The pictures from that are priceless. Our children made an album of our fifty years together. We don’t need any baubles or more things. The album is a true treasure. Keep your gift simple and meaningful. They will love it .