Gift Guide

It has been told many times homemade is the best kind of gift for Christmas. I remember when I was young my grandma use to make us all slippers for Christmas and me and my four sisters would be upset, " ahh not another pair of slippers we would say". I now know it was the best gift we ever had because her fingers would knit love into each piece of wool and spend the time to ensure the right size and colour. This wasn't done just at Christmas it took months to make slippers for all her grandchildren.

Forward a couple of years, to the time when my husband Greg and I were first married, ( 38 years ago) we were both had a low paying job in Tyendinaga and ran into hard times, we had no extra money for gifts, it wasn't easy raising two children at the time and no extra cash for Christmas. I decided to learn to make homemade P.J's in a bag and hats for everyone. Well, I can honestly say the P.J's were not a success but I did try my best, and after several tries my hats were successful. I realized after several years my husband and children must have really loved me because when I was cleaning out the clutter this year I found the hats, had some pretty hard laughs when I showed him what I found.

My gift guide became a change of perspective, I went back to giving from the heart and spirit, take time to research and know what the person whats and needs, it's not about the best deal or the expensive gift. Also, you don't have to wait until Christmas if the person needs something to give it now. When I see a person on the street, homeless well he or she isn't going to wait until Christmas, I take the time to notice if they need a coat or food or a homemade hat, I return to the person whoever they are and give the spirit of hope with the gift.

The guide to giving gifts is a plan which takes time to research and visit or chat on the phone, or the new talking device the cell. I have learned if I find out what one of my five children and 3 grandchildren want or need, the next step is found out if they need it now or later at Christmas. My son had no heat in his apartment, he was having a hard time because of COVID, we decided he needed heat now and not to wait until Christmas. You see my grandma knew we needed sleepers to keep our feet warm and even though we didn't want them we always appreciated our feet warm in our cold house during the winter.

We are sporting our homemade hats in this picture, my daughter and her family are having hard times because of COVID, she made everyone homemade hats, the perfect gift that wasn't just warm and matching with my loving husband but it bought back memories of the spirit of giving.

This year is especially hard for everyone because of COVID so if you receive a gift that is homemade at Christmas, take a minute to think about the love and time your gift-giver has taken for you and appreciate it and feel the spirit of the gift, and if someone needs something now then give it if you can.