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Nov 2006 Issue
by Gail Jackson
When our children were young and our parents were older, it became very hard to buy for them (the parents not the kids). They encouraged us to skip them at gift-giving time with declarations of “we don’t want anything,” “we don’t need anything,” “we have too much already.”
At the time we thought they were trying to help our budget but now that we are the older ones, we understand there really was more to it than finances. At some point in time we do have everything we need and often too much of it! But we….
Gotta give something!
Back then, in desperation, we looked at our parents in a different light. We looked at them as grandparents. And came up with simple, inexpensive and uniquely grand stuff you can give your parents when grandchildren are a part of the picture. And the saying is true–what goes around, comes around. Now our kids are giving us original and priceless gifts of their kids.
Being there at mealtime
Make place mats by having one great photo enlarged or photocopied to an 11×14 inch size. Or, cut a sheet of paper to place mat size and arrange a collage of snapshots as desired. Take your finished creation to a copy shop that does laminating and voila, a useful gift—not needed but guaranteed to be appreciated. Our grandchildren placements made mealtime happy time when we were away on our mission.
Sharing a good book
Simply crop a snapshot to bookmark size or cut a sheet of paper to the size you want the finished bookmark and fasten a selection of pictures to the paper. It is ready to laminate. Using a paper punch, you can make a hole in the top and tie a ribbon or yarn “tail.” If the grandparent is a paperback reader, you can make a photo-encased book cover that could be moved from book to book.
It is a good idea to check out different shops that do laminating before you begin. Like most things there can be a wide variation between shops, both in price and weight of the laminate. Call and explain exactly what you want to laminate and ascertain their ability to do it, plus their charge. Usually they charge more to laminate small individual items, like bookmarks, but most will allow you to put several small items on one large sheet to be laminated at one time. If it is done this way, be sure to leave room between items so they can be cut apart leaving a clear border around each item.
Bedsheets that warm the heart
Many years ago we gave our parents new top sheets for their beds. I collected a variety of pictures that our children had drawn and a few one-or-two line stories they had written. I traced these onto the sheets and went over the lines with bright colored permanent marking pens. Using the markers, we wrote an appropriate greeting, and the date, along the wide upper hem of the sheet. The children that were able, wrote their names. (Be sure to always have protection between the sheet and the table!) Another year we decorated pillowcases by tracing the children’s hands and proceeding as above. Today there are wide variety of fabric pens and tracing materials that would make the job much simpler.
Just as hand prints are everywhere…
…so are ideas for using them. Daughter Heidi used her four kids’ hands, dipped in bright green paint, to make a large Christmas Tree on a bright red sweat shirt. Daughter-in-law Cheri used her four kids’ hands to create the same on a ceramic cookie platter. Eight years before the cookie platter, Cheri copied the following poem on a sheet of paper and then helped the grandsons, ages 5, 3, and 9 months, place their hands in saucers of washable craft paint and place them on the the paper. She completed it by adding their names and ages alongside their prints.
Sometimes you get discouraged
because I am so small
and always leave my fingerprints
on the furniture and wall.
But everyday I’m growing.
I’ll be grown someday
and all those tiny hand prints
will surely fade away.
So here’s a special hand print,
just so you can recall
Exactly how my fingers looked
when I was very small.
Tying things up by digressing
When the grandkids were too small to do anything but scribble, our creative kids made the best of that by letting their kids each scribble on individual sheets of copy paper with special fabric crayons in an array of colors. The scribbling was then ironed onto white neckties, covering them completely, for the grandfathers (and an uncle on a mission). Grandma got a white t-shirt decorated with hearts cut from the scribbled sheets and ironed on, along with the message “the world’s greatest grandma” in kid-type lettering. Fourteen years later I am still wearing that shirt and it never fails to draw comments and compliments.
Needed?
You decide. No matter how much stuff older people have, don’t you imagine there is always room for a gift from the heart?
