ten on tuesday: the ten best gifts I have given

Here is a list of the ten best gifts I have given.

1. When my dad turned 50 years old I made him a scrapbook. I collected pictures of him from throughout his life and stories of him from siblings, children, parents, etc. I put the whole book together. It was my scrapbooking debut, the only scrapbooking project I have ever worked on and it rocked - if I say so myself.
2. For Valentines day one year I made my spousal unit a basket out of bread and filled it with strawberries.
3. For my spousal unit's fiftieth birthday I gave her 50 presents. That isn't really 'ONE' gift, but it was a blast to put together.
4. My first cross stitch project was a mime face that I stitched for my mom. I have NO idea why I chose to do a mime face. To my knowledge she has no particular interest in mimes, but it was quite the project to "start" my cross stitching career. Man that was a lot of work. I am surprised I finished it!
5. I cross stitched my SU some cool things - I have even framed one of them! It is three hearts with the words "love, love, love"
6. Last year for Christmas we decided we would give each of our nieces and nephews a book each year. Books are special to us and it is a way to share something of us with them. Our first gift was a book my SU found online - a book of counting in Shona (the language I grew up with in Zimbabwe)
7. My family has a funny "tradition" of gift giving. When I was growing up we didn't have lots of money. My parents would find things on sale throughout the year and put everything into a locked crate and then on Christmas eve sort through the crate and make piles to wrap for each kid. One year I got a flower that danced when it heard music. I wasn't ALL that interested in it and when my mom was cleaning up after Christmas she asked me if I wanted it and I said "not really" _ well back into the crate it went. Wouldn't you know, the next Christmas what do you suppose I unwrapped? You guessed it, a dancing flower. We laughed so hard. I think I got that stupid thing a few more times before other kids in the family started to get it. Well my parents have moved countries since then - a number of times - and the dancing flower has been lost along the way. Two years ago they came to Canada to celebrate Christmas with us and I happened to find for my dad --- A dancing flower. He totally loves it and it sits by his computer at home. It was so incredibly fun to give that to him and knowing that it sits by his computer in South Africa I always try to make noises - like "knocking" on msn messenger - to see if I can make it dance!
8. We got our son a balloon for his 2nd birthday. It was not the only thing we got him - but it was his "best" gift - it lasted months.
9. One year my spouse and I heard that my grandmother had a need for some items in her home. We sent money to my cousin (who I am certain "ADDED" to it) and got the stuff my ailing grandmother needed.
10. My SU and I did the 12 days of Christmas for a family in need in our community. For the 12 days leading up to Christmas we would put together a gift, write a poem, then put it on the doorstep and knock and run. We had a BLAST and can't wait to do it again.