Gifts, gifts and more gifts!

and I'm having fun, fun and more fun! I'm having a very successful year so far in the gift-giving ideas department. This is not how it usually goes. I'm usually just so flustered and frustrated and no one helps when you ask what they want. But this year is totally different. I just wish I could share with you what I've got going becuase I'm so excited. I've really out done myself and I think people are going to be surprised. But I'm afraid the worldwide web is the wrong place to confide the great gift ideas I've come up with. I'll take photos and will be posting after the big day.

First and foremost, I've been consumed with what to do for Heidi's family over there in China but I think I have it taken care of. I'm going to try to get everything mailed off by Nov. 30th! That should be plenty of time to get to them. It has been quite amusing to watch me mentally weigh everything and imagine how well it will fit into the proper size flat-rate boxes. I sent off a "get excited for the Christmas season" package to them yesterday and for 1 DVD and a package of Hershey's kisses it cost $11 to mail. Should be interesting to see what the rest will total. It's OK Swapps! You guys are worth it! I did get an email last week about an airline special from Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Miami or Washington, DC to Beijing for $275 round trip if you flew by Dec. 13th. I was so excited. I was already planning what to pack. Then I went online and discovered that tickets from Salt Lake to those eastern cities were around $450! Besides the cost I'd have to fly SLC to the east coast then back across the country to Beijing and back the same way on the return trip. It seemed overwhelming so I'll just use the $275 on postage and my packages can make that grueling flight. When we go over in May I'm just going to fly DIRECT! I do think there is a layover in LA but that is atleast in the same direction as my final destination.

Last summer I signed up to be included in a fun online gift exchange called "Pink Christmas". I think about 150 others signed up too so alot of people are involved. Along with the gift exchange portion everyone was asked to donate $10 to a bone morrow transplant for the niece of the woman that organized this online exchange. I think the transplant was done in October and I'm hoping and praying that all has gone well and that Claire is going to be feeling better by Christmas. I'm sure lots of people donated more than the suggested $10 amount. I hope these funds were helpful to their family as well.


Each person that signed up filled out a questionaire with some information about each of us and then we were all randomly assigned someone to give a homemade gift to. We were all supposed to have these gifts completed by Thanksgiving and mailed off by the first of December. I knew immediately what it was that I wanted to make to give to my partner but I knew I had LOTS of time before I had to make it. Finally a couple weeks ago I got started and it has turned out so perfectly! I'm way pleased with it and can hardly wait to give it to her! I hope she'll like it as much as I liked making it for her. Along with her information from her questionaire answers I got her blog address and so I have been reading it for several months now and it has been alot of fun to "get to know her" even though she has absolutely no idea who I am or that I'm following her life via her blog.

Given the success of the above mentioned handmade gift, I have made 3 more similar to the one I made for Pink Christmas. I'm giving those to 3 special friends (in my real life!). I really love to make things by hand. It probably means more to me than it does to the receiver but that is what gets me excited about giving these gifts and even the ones that I don't make.

I'm always blown away by people that say they have all their gifts and shopping done by Halloween. I usually get my best ideas at the last minute. Well, this year the ideas are coming lots earlier and I'm having a lot of fun! I just hope I don't run out of steam before the big day!