Gift Giving In Tough Economical Times



Okay, financially speaking, we’re probably all singing the blues right now. Not only nationally, but also globally, people in all economic stratas are feeling, if not a pinch, at least a little nudge in the wrong direction. Many of us are talking around the water cooler at work or the dinner table at home about reining in our spending. Personally, I don’t think this is a bad idea at all. Much of society has been living beyond what they could comfortably afford. Sooner or later that lifestyle is going to catch up. But I don’t believe that we should go around with our chins on our chest, preaching nothing but doom and gloom. We have a financial challenge and we’re going to meet that challenge. In the meantime, we all need to remember that the things we enjoy in life can, and should continue.

If travel is what you want to give your lover as a gift and it is way beyond anything affordable right now, how about a travel book of a desired destination (Tuscany, perhaps)? If finances allow, include dinner at a local Italian restaurant. If finances don’t allow for the dinner, don’t despair. Get in the kitchen and whip up a big pot of spaghetti; throw in a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck and you are looking at a delicious, creative evening.

Say the recipient of your gift is your 5-year-old son. He’s going through an artistic phase and every item advertised on television or in those endless catalogs that continue to arrive in the mail at this time of year that has anything at all to do with drawing pictures, he wants it! And we’re not talking about a box of crayons here. Don’t allow yourself to become caught up in all the advertisements thrown your way. Be creative. Give your child a unique gift. Actually, give him 12 unique gifts. On the 25th of each month in 2009, present young Junior with a wrapped package and a promise to spend a half hour on that very day he receives it enjoying it with him. All well and good, you say, but I can’t think of two gifts that I can afford, let alone 12! Following are suggestions, many of which can be found at your local dollar store.

• A box of crayons. Despite what the television commercials would have
you believe, a child can still find hours of entertainment with a box of
crayons. If your child has crayons already, think outside the box (I know, I
just couldn’t resist!) – get him a box of neon colors, or skin tone colors, or
colored pencils instead of crayons.

• An inexpensive coloring book. These can be found at the dollar store very
inexpensively. Look for one that displays an interest of his – Spiderman, dogs,
word play.

• Sidewalk chalk.

• A pad of colored construction paper, a pair of safety scissors for a young child and
a glue stick.

• Clay or play doh. (And don’t be tricked into believing you need all the special tools
sold in the same aisle – a few items from your kitchen drawer will work just fine.) You can also find the recipe for a play doh substitute on the internet. (familyfun.com)

• Finger paint. If you go to your local newspaper office they may give you a roll of
newsprint. It will last forever!

• Squiggly eyes, glitter, a couple of squares of felt. Then take your tyke on a walk and
collect rocks that together you can turn into pet rocks. Have fun naming them. Don’t be surprised if you both actually become rather attached to your new pets.

• A disposable camera (or let him use your digital camera). Go to a park and let him take pictures with minimal instruction from you. After the pictures are developed or
copied, provide your budding artist with some pieces of cardboard or card stock and suggest he create his own photo album.

• Find some old magazines and provide the safety scissors. Let him cut out pictures while you explain what a collage is (many pictures with a common theme). Then he can glue the pictures on a large sheet of card stock or paper while he explains to
you the reason he chose each one. Believe me, there’s a story in this one!

• This one’s lots of fun! Visit this website: familyfun.com They have recipes for
playing with one’s food. In other words, making art from food – and you get to
eat it!

• Go to your local hobby shop and purchase a package of popsickle sticks. Add
some glue and you’ll be amazed at what might appear on your work table.

• You’ll need a large piece of paper for this one. The newsprint would be perfect.
Have you child lie down on the paper while you trace around him. Then have him
paint the person you’ve traced. Watch closely to see how he perceives himself.

• Pompoms, squiggly eyes, pipe cleaners and glue. Your child can create an entire village.

There, I’ve given you enough ideas for the entire year plus one extra. I’m sure you can come up with many more. But remember that a vital part of this gift is the time you share with your little van Gogh! It’s priceless.

Finally, I’m going to take you to the other end of the age spectrum. This happens to be the end I inhabit so I feel very confident with these suggestions. Those of us who are moving past our ‘middle years’ simply don’t need more things. In fact, we’re trying to get rid of many of the things we have accumulated. Here are a few ideas of things we do need:

We need to know that you care about us. Vow that you will phone us once a month, just to chat. Make the call during a time when you won’t feel that after “hello” you’ll need to rush off.

We need to be able to enjoy a meal that we haven’t opened a can or carton and popped into the microwave. When you prepare a family meal, make a little extra. If it’s for someone who lives in the neighborhood it would be a nice gesture to bring it over on a tray at mealtime, still hot and fragrant, maybe with a flower on the tray. We understand that you probably can’t stay, but the effort to make it extra special will be appreciated.

Sometimes we need to have errands run. Do you have four hours on a Saturday that you could promise if we supplied you with a list, you could run errands for us?

We need to know that our checkbook is balanced. Can you do that for us?

Some of us have failing eyesight. Maybe a grandchild can come by every so often and read to us. If not a book, perhaps a magazine article or some articles from the newspaper.

Most of all, we need to know that we have done something worthy during our lives. Maybe sending a card or a phone call reminding us of a memory you have valued of something we might have said or done.

Sometimes it takes a little effort; sometimes you just forget – but if it’s true, please tell us that you love us.

Celebrating Your Memories Outside the Box!

For those of you who read this blog last week, you may recall that I was making plans to sort through old photos as a winter project. I also promised that I would share with you a marvelous idea. I suggest that as soon as you finish reading this, you visit this website: www.tabithageary.com. This woman has developed a product that every family will want to have – for every member of the family! She has taken the concept of scrapbooking and combined it with the concept of a photo album, and thrown in that unique blend of love found within each family. She then creates a book that I promise will just blow you away.

I’ve seen her work and it’s absolutely amazing, so amazing that her company has been named a finalist for the Martha Stewart "Dreamers into Doers" contest.

This is a product that has the potential to go so far beyond a family album. In this time in our country’s history, when so many of our young people are far off fighting a war that we all wish would end, this book could make a huge difference to their emotional well being.

For the families who have lost a special member and want to make sure that person is never forgotten, this book can link the generations.

To record a special vacation, an achievement, a moment in time, check out Tabitha’s website today. Oh! And the very best part is you can just cart in all those photos and momentos and Tabitha and her staff will put it all together for you!

Celebrating Memories

Okay, everyone, as much as you wish to remain in denial, the facts are clear. Summer is over and we are moving well into the fall season. Nothing wrong with that! Fall is a beautiful time of year. The air is a little crisp, leaves are turning colors and there are even a few special holidays ahead. Halloween is great fun for old and young alike. That’s followed by Thanksgiving – my personal favorite holiday of the entire year. But we all know that as we move into December, anything can happen. The weather can make dramatic changes and we may find ourselves indoors more than we’d like to be. Even those pampered souls in sunny southern California may experience several days of rain (please, let it rain!) What to do with all that indoor time? You know you always promise yourself to clean out the closets, basement, drawers and cupboards. Maybe you’ll even do a bit of that this year, but you should have one or two fun projects lined up for the encroaching hibernation season. And if you need supplies for those projects, the day of the first blizzard is not the best time to go out shopping.

Promise yourself that in the next two weeks, you will choose a project you’d enjoy working on and do a little research to determine what you will need to begin and complete that project. Make a list and go out and purchase those supplies now. Then you’ll be ready. I’ve already determined what my project will be. I want to arrange my photographs. While going through boxes to estimate just what I’m going to need in the way of photo albums I began thumbing through old photos. Nothing can eat into a day like going through old photos. But what a terrific way to spend one’s time.

Early in 2008 our family lost a very special member. My husband’s great-aunt passed away at the age of 102. I miss her every day. Peggy Berlin, more than anyone I know, always had a way of making me feel not only special, but worthy. A hug from Peggy was a loving gift. She also told the best stories. Please humor me for a moment while I share one of her stories with you.

Peggy and her husband, Harry Berlin, owned an ice cream store on B Street in downtown San Diego in the 1920’s and 30’s called Berlin’s Chocolate Shop. A frequent customer to the shop was a gentleman who worked for Ryan Aeronautics Company. One day this man came into the shop and introduced to Harry and Peggy the shy, young man with him and said, “You’ve never heard of this man before, but I guarantee you that after next week the whole world will know his name.” That shy, young man was Charles Lindbergh. Peggy told me when she asked for his order (he ordered a lemonade) he blushed.

Well, I’ve gotten a little sidetracked here, but the message I want to leave you with is this: Go through those old photos and memorabilia. Look at them closely. Remember the people from your past. Maybe even shed a tear or two. But appreciate having had those certain people in your life and celebrate that bond.

Be sure to come back next week for some terrific ideas to save, enhance and treasure memories.

An Evening with Neil Diamond

I enjoyed the great good fortune a few nights ago to attend a Neil Diamond concert. As a woman entering my 60’s, he sings an era of music I can certainly relate to. And while a good percentage of the audience fit right into my peer group, there were also a number of people belonging to a younger generation who wouldn’t have nearly the same image pop into their heads as we did ours when he broke into “Sweet Caroline”.

Seated to my immediate right was an attractive young woman whom I would guess to be about 25. To her immediate right was her grandmother, a very spritely woman whom I would estimate to be somewhere in her seventies. And to her immediate right was the woman who linked these two together, the mother of the former and the daughter of the latter. These three ladies were having as much fun as I’ve observed anyone having in quite some time. My view was somewhat blocked of the woman who was the mother of one and the daughter of the other, but the granddaughter and grandmother were clapping and hollering with the best of them. It was a hot night (sure wish I could get “Hot August Night” in their somehow!) and shortly after arriving on the stage, Mr. Diamond shed a vest he was wearing. I heard a “Whoop! Take it off!” via my right ear. When I turned my head, I realized it was the sweet little lady in her 70’s! Another time during the concert, Grandma and Granddaughter were not only clapping in unison, but they were bobbing their heads forward completely in tune with one another.

My point in relaying this observation is to relay what a wonderful celebration of life this evening was. Three generations of women, each with their own very distinct vision in their mind of “Solitary Man” or “Kentucky Woman”, connecting with one another as women will when listening to a famous musician, but also connecting with one another as family and all the myriad of emotions and personalities and history that that entails.

It was a wonderful evening for approximately 12,000 fans, in particular three women seated in Section 16B. Thank you, Mr. Diamond!

From the Mouths of Babes

by Alana Lennie

Less we adults become a bit too sanquine about our ability to know what is best, it’s important that we stop and listen to the younger set, and be ready to take a tip or two from them.

A very dear friend of mine recently celebrated yet another birthday. My friend is the proud grandmother of five beautiful young grandchildren. Shortly before the family birthday party, her 6-year-old granddaughter was in a bookstore with her dad. Suddenly, she announced in a very confident tone of voice that she knew exactly what she wanted to get Grandma for her birthday. When her father asked her, “What?” she took him by the hand and led him to the cookbook section. Now, my friend is an excellent cook and this fact is both known and appreciated by everyone in the family, even the youngest grandchildren. This little sweetheart showed her father a book with the rather impish title of Hello, Cupcake! Grinning irresistibly from the cover are three adorable puppy dogs. No child could resist this book. She insisted this would be the perfect gift. And, you know what? She was right. My friend brought it to a luncheon a few days later and shared it with all of us. She already had stickies to mark the page where the recipe was for the cupcakes she was going to make that week-end with two of the granddaughters.

That little six-year-old mind knew exactly how to celebrate with her grandma. She combined something her grandma liked to do with someone her grandma liked to be with, and Presto! Instant celebration.

I’m sure there are many baking dates in the future for this grandma and her lucky grandchildren. Sticky fingers and bright smiles will be emblems of happy celebrations creating marvelous memories that will last forever.

The book: Hello, Cupcake

By: Karen Tack and Alan Richardson
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Celebrating the Season!

Fall Greetings from Alana

This week marks a change as the calendar turns another page. We celebrate the beginning of the fall season. Regardless of where you might live, you are likely experiencing something different in the air.

A friend in Vermont told me he and his wife have gone out and covered their flower bed every night. In the morning they lift the cover off very carefully and look skyward and say a little prayer that they’ll be able to enjoy yet another day with that splash of color before the night air becomes just a bit too crisp to allow these lovely blossoms to persist.

A relative in Chicago declared that it is absolutely beautiful weather they’re having. (When there is beautiful weather in Chicago, the natives want to make very sure that we Southern Californians are aware of it!) After a deluge recently, the weather gods are blessing the Midwest with a teaser of a few days that feel almost like summer – almost, but not quite. One feels just the hint of crispness in the air to indicate that winter is lurking and will be upon them very soon.

Here in Southern California, I’ve been taking daily walks around the bay. The summer visitors have all returned home and the neighborhood is quiet and peaceful once again. Even here, where the rest of the country feels we don’t know what weather is, there is a subtle difference.

Whether alone or with someone special, go out, take a walk. As you look up and notice the first leaves beginning to fall, marvel at the miracle of one season coming to a close and another season about to begin. Celebrate the continuity of what we call “life”. Rejoice in the fact that with all the ups and downs of life, the busyness of our daily routines, we can still take a few moments out of our day, look around and say, Let’s celebrate!”

Give it up for the Grandparents!

This Sunday, September 7, 2008 is Grandparent’s Day and I’ve got some great ideas for ways you can honor your grandparents or help your children cultivate a great relationship with their grandparents.

Be sure to view our latest episode of “Celebrating Life” posted on youtube because this week it is all about grandparents! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQdsQNHojio You can also subscribe to our show by clicking the yellow “Subscribe” button so that you don’t miss a single episode of “Celebrating Life; Past, Present & Future”.

Gift Ideas for Grandparents:

Typically, Grandparents are at a stage in their lives where they are not looking to accumulate more things. Many are downsizing or are looking to clear out clutter. So look for a way to bring joy to a Grandparent through a gift that is a yummy treat or something that makes them smile rather than another thing to dust!

*Delicious Treats-Even kids can be a part of this one! Bake up a yummy treat of cookies or brownies. Place them in an airtight container and wrap it up with pretty ribbon and a great card. Deliver a special surprise they can enjoy or share with friends! This works great for Grandparents that are nearby or far away. I just sent cookies to my Grandfather and he enjoyed them for over a week. You can send them in a Priority Mail Flat Rate Box and they usually arrive in 2-3 days. Be sure to bake them fresh on a Monday or Tuesday and run them to the post office that day. That will ensure they arrive fresh and as quickly as possible.
*Photo Post Cards-Personal mail can be a real treat for anyone, but especially for a grandparent who may not be close by or who may not be able to be as active as they once were. Select 5-10 photographs of children, yourself, a favorite place or a special time you or your child spent with a grandparent. Make a print of each photo and write a brief message on the left side of the back of the photo. Use the right side for a stamp and address, (just like a post card). Get all of your post cards written, addressed and stamped and then just pop one in the mail each day for an entire week. Just think how you will brighten someone’s day! For a more professional look, visit http://www.the2buds.com/suph2pc.htm to order their post card backings, ($3.95 for 10).

I also want to recommend a great book I recently discovered, Grandloving filled with wonderful ideas for creating bonds and making memories with your grandchildren. www.grandloving.com Check out their great ideas!

Transitioning from Summer into Fall

As I head into Labor Day weekend, I think of all the fun we had this summer and the new chapter that will begin next week. This is the first year I will have all 3 children in school 5 days a week.

Life ebbs and flows for us and the seasons traditionally mark the passage of time. One great way to celebrate your life is by establishing traditions. Traditions give us anchors in our lives that we can depend upon year after year. Why not start a tradition in your family that helps the children transition from Summer Vacation back to School? Here are a few ideas but I'd love to hear what you do too! Please share!

*Back To School Ice Cream Social-invite friends you haven't seen all summer and have a social for all the kids to get back in touch and get excited about going back to school

*Back To School Shopping-as a kid I loved the chance to start fresh with new folders, lunch boxes, pencils, erasers. Involve the kids in this activity and have them select all their items personally. Have them label everything and pack up their packs for the first day of school.

*Best & Worst-We have a dinner time tradition of going around the table and saying our best and worst thing that happened that day. This week, I'm having the kids do a "Best & Worst" for Summer Vacation and illustrate it. We will then create a book of summer photos, their entries and any other items we'd like to remember from this summer.

Jumping In With Both Feet!



I've heard for quite a while that I must have a blog, so here I am, "Jumping in with both feet", into the blogosphere! First and foremost, I thank you for taking the time to visit The Blue Top Hat® blog. I am CEO & Co Founder of The Blue Top Hat®, an innovative gift company.

As I create this new blog you can expect to see:

• Ideas for Celebrating your Life, Everyday, Past, Present & Future
  
• Wonderful Gift Ideas to Buy and Make
• My Favorite Things
• Tales from the Life of a Mompreneur®
• Inspirational Stories

With each entry I will bring you information about creating a special place in your life for the Celebrations that bring joy and meaning to our lives. Please comment! Tell me what you love, what you hate, and what you want to see more of. I look forward to sharing my passion for living life to the fullest each and every day!


Cheers,


Kendall Morris