Christmas gifts...

When I was a little girl my mother would make me write thank you notes/letters to the people who had given me gifts. For some reason I thought about that letter writing the other day even though it is many many years ago. Those letters were dreadful!
I would start with the greeting (eg Dear Nanna) and write a sentence saying thank you after writing the obligatory 'How are you? I am fine.' Then obviously to fill up the page I would then proceed to write another sentence listing ALL the gifts I got on that particular occasion! I like to think that I used commas but probably I just used lots of the word 'and'. Pretty crass and self-centred!

Now I'm not going to write a post listing all this year's Xmas gifts and normally I wouldn't really mention gifts but this year my gifts have been very special. Regular readers would be used to my occasional rants about my having too much 'stuff'. My gifts from the family this year are extremely thoughtful; many are consumables to be enjoyed and these items don't need a home to be found for them :-) Here's some of the items that my lovely family gave me...

I love the story of Noah and this lovely item came from my brother and his partner

This year I have received some handmade gifts such as a beautiful fruit cake from my brother's partner and a mosaic tile as a feature in the garden which was made for me by DH's DD1. Meg put a hydrangea motif in the design as she knows it is a favourite flower so how special is that?

I plan to put the tile near the new front entrance and grow some blue/mauve annuals around it :-)

From my BIL and SIL I received a cultivator which my BIL bought online at a bargain price. (on Christmas Day at their place, I tried out their one and it worked a treat!) DH's DD2 and her partner gave me some skeins of soft New Zealand merino wool which they bought whilst in NZ...so thoughtful and useful! My DD1 bought me a coffee mug in a pretty tin that I can take to Sisters of Stitch and use the lid of the tin for my afternoon tea plate.

DD1 also bought me some cuttings/divisions of 3 types of irises. My DD2 bought me a lovely metal rooster who's taken up residence on the new veranda and DH's DD3 gave me a Bunnings (huge hardware chain)voucher that will help buy another raised garden bed for vegetables. Then there are the chocolates...more than enough to see us through until Easter!

It's New Year's Eve here in Australia and this evening people will see in the New Year in various ways...Happy New Year to everyone and may 2012 be a great year!

PS This post probably did end up like the letters to my Nanna and godmother,but hopefully the punctuation and grammar have improved!!! lol The technology has certainly advanced.