Really Good Gift #1

I wanted to tell you about a beautiful book my stepmother sent to us recently, which I think would be a really nice family tradition for you and a terrific Christmas gift for giving.  A Father's Legacy is a journal with a prompt on each page to have a father explain boyhood, the people who influenced him, holiday memories family traditions, etc, all things that kids would be interested to know but might never actually be discussed.  Flipping through it I was really impressed by the thoughtfulness of the different questions and realized not only would this be valuable for my kids to have, but a great way for me to get to know more about my husband.  We've been together 16 years but I still hear stories  that make me say "You never told me that!"*   He's not much for writing, so I will most definitely need to be his scribe to get thing done (started!).   My plan is to bring this book out at the dinner table sometimes because these are great conversation starters, the boys always love to hear dad's stories, but dinner is also a time where lots of life lessons and "stuff that Paul thinks is really important for them to know" is conveyed!  Also, I am thinking this will be a nice thing to do before bed when we are tucked in and he is watching the news, I can ask him to share a bit (during commercial break!) and then jot it down.  What a treasure it will be!

Anyway, with the holidays coming up, I think this is the first of my "this would be a really good gift" posts (see title).  We can always use more gift ideas, right?  These will be some I have received, and some I have given that were particularly well received.  Perhaps there will be some sprinkled in that are more "Wow, I sure would like to have this!"  because really , sometimes you might need to buy a little prezzie for yourself. :)  So for what it's worth!  Feel free to come back in the comment section of each and share ideas or even links of some you think are really great, too, because I just love something out of the box, that would be great for me to freshen up my gift giving also.

*This goes for recipes, as well. He'll bust out some dish he's never mentioned before that is the best thing I ever put in my mouth and will say, " Oh, we always made this growing up.  I have to save some surprises so you won't get tired of me."