We are family...

Every year I kind of struggle with what to give my parents for birthdays and Christmas... seriously, what do you want when you are 86 and 89 years old? You just want good health and visits from your family... at least that is what they always tell me when I ask what I can get them... not much help. But this year, I came up with a couple of fun surprises.

I had gotten a sweater for my dad and a nightgown for my mom but I wasn't all that excited about those things. Then I remembered a conversation over the Thanksgiving dinner table when my dad was telling us about some books that he read as a child. He said he used to read these burgess books and he loved them. He ended by saying "I would love to get my hands on some of those books again". I had no idea what a burgess book was so I googled it and I found out that a man named Thornton Burgess had written a series of books starting in the early 1900s. He used animals as the main characters and the stories always taught some good value or important moral. They were similar to the Tales of Peter Rabbit and Tom Kitten and Benjamin Bunny that were written by Beatrix Potter. There were about 150 books all together.

I wasn't sure where to find any of these books but I knew where to go to by anything... EBAY! Yip, there were Burgess books for sale. I lost about 3 or 4 bids but I ended up getting a book because there was a "buy it now" button. Then I found one at a local used bookseller here in town. They were both in amazingly good shape for books published in 1911 and 1926 respectively. Dad was so surprised and thrilled to be holding those books again. He opened one up and immediately began reading us a few paragraphs. You could tell he was reading something familar and beloved to him. It was a very sweet moment.

I also came up with another great idea at the last minute... actually 2 weeks before Christmas I read on someone's blog about a woman who makes beautiful family trees. So I went to her website www.cynthiajan.com and was very impressed. I emailed her all 130 names and she put it all together and got it to me with 4 days to spare. Mom and Dad were so thrilled with it. It was amazing to watch them read every name with love and affection. I think it was so rewarding to see there whole posterity there on that huge, full grown tree. They actually got a little teary and knew immediately where they wanted to hang it! Those were really special gifts that I enjoyed giving because of the sweet reactions more than a sweater or a nightgown would ever produce!