Gift of memories

Around Thanksgiving my sister-in-law posted a link about giving memories instead of toys.  I could have agreed more since we have a plethera of junk toys.

So, for birthdays and the holidays we now try and give gifts of time and memories.  Unfortuantely neither Jeremy nor I was good about bringing the camera along, except for Kahlan's birthday gift.  I have her a ticket for a coffee date. 

 

She didn't quite get the idea when she opened it.

It had a picture of me, Samantha and her drinking coffee.  Some students of mine are in a band and play regularly at a local coffee shop.  So one Saturday I took the girls for some hot-cocoa and they got to listen to the band.  Since they started playing at 8pm I made it a pj date (so they could go straight to bed when they got home!).  Yes, even I went in my pj's.  Sorry, no pictures of that!

 

 

But boy was it a hit when she got to go!

 

Kahlan and her "coffee"

Sam gulped hers down before the first song was over.

The birthday girl and the band

They could.not.sit.still.



If there had been room to dance, I would not have worried too much...

For Christmas we continued the "dates". 

Lucy got two- one from all of us and one from her Godmother (me).  Her first was a trip to the Animal Shelter.  She wanted Jeremy to take her.  They spent a good 45 mintues there, and Lucy played with one of the dogs for a good part of that time.  Afterwards they went to HobbyTown to pick out an animal of some sort (Lucy is obsessed with plastic or stuffed animals). 

Her spiritual gift was a holy 1/2 hour with me at the chapel at my school.  We prayed a Chaplet of Divine Mercy, talked about holy images, the difference between a cross and a crucifix, sand a few hyms and then had some quite prayer time.  Afterwards she watched Turbo in my classroom.

 

For Kahlan and Grayson I took them (and Samantha) to Ager.  The girls played hard and Grayson went back and forth between following them around and trying to master the trikes and cars on the outter ring.  A few times I found him strapped in one of the cars, waiting for me to make my round and unbuckle him.  After the first hour he finally got the courage to go in the play structure.  After another 50 minutes he finally moved beyond the ball-pits.  In the final 10 minutes he climbed all the way to the top and went down the tallest slide by himself.  He was so proud of himself.  On his second time climbing up I told him he was like Spiderman. 

 "No!" he replied, "I SUPERman!"

He even helped and encouraged Kahlan to go down the tall slide, "It's ok, Sissy! I show you!"

Samantha's gift from Jeremy was a cooking date.  He showed her how to make birds in a nest.  I bought 2 dozen eggs for her to practice, but she lost interest and didn't want to touch them after a few tries. 

 

Samantha's gift from me was a swim-date to Swimtastic.  Over the summer we went swimming at least once a week.  It was such a relief to be submerged in the water with my big belly that it was well worth the extra laundry.  She was esTATIC about going swimming with me again.  She counted down the days until the swim date.  And now, it's all she talks about.  Even post-swim date.

 

Samantha also received a "Princess for a day" and a "Nail-date" from other family members.  Needless to say, these "dates" have been a huge hit with the kids.  Sam is constantly giving me ideas for dates for her birthday or next Christmas.