I was concerned that I wasn’t giving enough, because I didn’t feel like shopping. The money and time required are just really unappealing. At this point everybody has FINALLY reached a point where they don’t need something. That makes shopping a lot harder. If you know Heather doesn’t have money for baby clothes or dollies you know what to get. Or if Christopher.. Well, he generally needed warm clothes at this time of year or a tool. Both of them have what they need.
Tonight, I started packing the car for Canadian and this is how the presents broke down. Everyone gets: a copy of the DVD, video and slideshow, from Grandma’s Surprise Birthday party, a copy of Grandma’s photos and some of mine (7.8 gig). Some get: a CD of music I picked up listening to Pandora that you can’t buy in Walmart or Best Buy. And the local ones get jars of homemade bread and butter pickles from my canning adventures in September and aromatherapy bath salts that we’ll make at Grandma’s house tomorrow night. I took a class last year at this time.
Unique gifts are: a Macintosh 2002 eMac for Adam, Patience’s 10? year old boy, $100 Lowe’s gift certificate to Mom plus the 4×6 pics of her paintings, and finally for Grandma 2 seat cushions and a $100 Lowe’s gift certificate. I thought of burning the digital scans of Mom’s paintings to CD, but they are already downloadable for anyone who cares or understands. Christopher gets the TiVo Wireless (b/g) Adapter for his birthday. He doesn’t need it. Wires are much faster, but it should make his life easier trying to connect things.
That seems pretty good to me. No one gets stupid crap. More time went into these gifts than if I had bought them. Making the pickles took 2-3 hours plus growing the cucumbers. Bath salts will take 2-3 hours. The DVD took a hundred or more hours to scan photos, assemble in a timeline, transcode, and burn. The blank discs cost $5 or more each.
I’m happy with everything. Most of it is unique and personal (or familial). Some things like the DVD and eMac are technical things that would be impossible for anyone else in my family to do. Not because they can’t. Because they wouldn’t spend the time or perhaps be aware of the possibility. These two items let me experiment with something new and were good projects in themselves.
It might seem strange that I would tell everyone what they got for Christmas beforehand. I don’t think anyone reads the blog, except Suzie. So, who cares. I felt like writing it.
They sound like wonderful presents. There is nothing better than something that is made by you. I hope they like everything you got them.
????What’s wrong with me being the only one to read this?????