The Special Gifts

Happy 3 Kings Day, Epiphany, Driekoningen...what ever you may call today.  For me it is not only the day that is recognized as the day the three wiseman approached baby Jesus with their gifts, it is also a day of reflection.  Three years ago on this day, we said "good-bye" to one of my favorite people, my Noni.  And in honor of her and all of the angels I love up in heaven, I'd like to share with you some of the very special gifts that were shared this holiday in our family.

I have had many special Christmas' and have received many special gifts but I cannot recall a Christmas quite like 2011.  It started off with S and I working so hard to make as many of our gifts by hand.  As you know we have a tradition of making one gift for each of our children and this year we made the doll cradle and super hero cape.  They were two of our favorite gifts to give and we loved the moment when we first saw each of the kids playing with their new toy that we created.

S's grandmother, who is 92 years young, worked with her daughter to create a small family cookbook.  As the mother of 9 children, she had to have recipes that were tried and true and now they are all together in a small collection.  This idea was Kiki's and I was so happy to see it come to fruition.  Kiki had always talked about taking all of the family recipes and getting them into one book.  We now have 1/2 of the project complete and S and I will treasure this gift from his grandmother forever.

The most special gifts for me were the gifts that came from the angels.  Lil' C's gift from her Uncle B was wrapped in Kiki's Santa bag.  She used this bag each year to bring her presents to the farm for Christmas.  This wrapping became a gift for Mimi and I know it means a lot for her to have it.  Mimi also worked with the angels and picked a few treasures for each of us, things that had once belonged to Kiki or Grandpa Lou.  It was an emotional Christmas with tears after each gift was opened but it means so much to all of us to have these pieces of the people we love and miss so very much. 

So today I think of my Noni and also Kiki, Grandpa Lou, Pops, Tante, Grandpa P, Grandpa M, Uncle Howie, Jack, Grandpa F, Di and all of the other angels I miss so very much.  It is the day of the epiphany, the day of gifts and each of you were a gift to me.