The Gifts of Life

This year Velo’s oldest sister had a wonderful idea for parent gifts.
Each child gave some presents that were sentimental. It sounded nice, but buying the people that brought you into this world and sacrificed nearly everything to rear you a gift that shows the gratitude you’ve developed for them is actually a rather daunting task.
Appearances are important to me, so each gift HAD to be wrapped. I knew this was the kind of thing a parent would treasure forever, so I also HAD to type up the explanations for keepsake. On each wrapped gift we put the “memory” or reason for the gift with the final explanation inside.
Here’s how it turned out...

Velo being the oldest went first. He recapped what we’d written for the outside, then let Mom and/or Dad read them out loud and open the present with the “punchline” inside.
We got them a c.d. of Cars music and a Willow Tree ornament to represent all the Lake Powell family trips.
Then there were cookie mixes. Sentimental of Mom’s goodness she often serves up. Chocolate covered sunflower seeds for all the lessons Dad “planted” in his son (like not falling asleep while driving).
Finally there were tie tack/pins shaped like sport balls that said CTR on them. These were for the lessons taught to Velo by these wonderful parents. Some, like the sports, didn’t stick, but some, like Choosing the Right, did.

We followed with oldest to youngest. Our next sister gave, an itunes gift card for all the music brought into the home, a plush fish for all the fishing trips and bonding times, a unpicker for her mothers help in doing things -especially sewing- right. Finally she gave a sack of apples to resemble all the learning they had given and supported their children in. That one made me tear up. They do have two with Masters, one with a Bachelors, and one with enough credits at 20 to get an Associates.

Next sister gave them Smoothy mix for when they lived there and spilt it all over (and all the good food Mom makes). There was an itunes gift card for how much Dad loves his music. And the big tear jerker, her medal for one of her races. See, she is an amazing runner and has had great support from her “number one fan”-Dad.

Finally littlest sister got to go. She told about the family’s traditions of food and how she loved to eat Lobster on Valentines. So they got a Red Lobster gift card. So clever.

It was amazing. It was super fun to hear the memories, see what had impressed people and how creative everyone had been able to be. It was especially fun to find that everyone thought of itunes gift cards for Dad. Too bad, and yet good thing we didn’t all follow through on that one. Music was another big one. People remember the music around the home. Support was the other theme.
It’s no wonder these two amazing people were able to attend the sealings of all their children and that everyone still loves to come home.

Can you think of anything you’d give your parents?