Special things for Family, Friends and Special People

Like most people in this day and age I have family and friends scattered all across the globe, in this country and abroad. As much as I would like to be in regular contact with all of these people, life sometimes gets in the way. Now I could berate myself and feel guilty (which in all honesty I do sometimes) or I can know in my heart that I think of them often and at times like Christmas, make the effort to send them a personal gift. To do this you have to be organised, something which nowadays doesn't come naturally to me. December seems to creep up each year faster than the year before and before I know it the last day for national and international posting has been and gone. Over the years the personalised gifts have taken on a number of guises, some of the ideas for which I'd like to share with you.

A short (edited) DVD of video footage taken over the last twelve months. It helps that my husband is a whizz with the video editing package that came with our computer.

A little less effort but still a lovely thing to do is a CD with a slide show of photographs, set to good music. We did this for my Mum last year who we only see once a year on average. She must have bored the rest of my family senseless by showing it over and over again. Proud grandparent see?

A beautiful photo album with copies of old forgotten photographs of times spent with the people years ago and little captions. I love looking at old photographs and reminiscing. You could do this with more recent photographs too.

Cards and pictures made by the children. Not just something they would have painted anyway but a picture that has been thought about with the recipient in mind. We have a DJ in the family, a picture was painted of him wearing earphones.

Paint an object such as a wooden spoon and then adourn with ribbon. You could do this with other objects. Ask people what their favourite colour is and try to match the object accordingly.

This last weekend I iced some heart shaped cookies with the names of the teachers at my sons weekend activity club. Tied with satin ribbon or raffia they look beautiful and cost next to nothing to make.

On more of a foodie note, I've made marmalade, jams and chutney. Spice mixes with recipes, rolled and tied with raffia. Bath salts, scented with essential oils. Cookie mixes in a jar, with a cookie cutter attached with some gorgeous gingham ribbon and there's always our fail safe sloe gin that we make using sloes picked from the local hedgerows at the start of Autumm.

The reason I like making things is because while I make something I think about the person it is for. I like that, it suddenly seems okay that I might not be spending time with those people. I'm quietly celebrating that I do actually know them. Besides I love picking glue and bits of paint off my hands, and glitter, well finding bits in my hair for weeks on end is just a bonus.

These are just a few of the things we have done over the years. If there are any special things that you make for people we'd love to hear your ideas.

---

Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

This Post was written by Amanda from Little Foodies