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If you’re like me, you have a hard time coming up with creative ideas for gifts for your partner. My husband is getting increasingly difficult to shop for. The things he wants are out of my price range.
A neat idea showed up in my e-mail this morning. I receive several e-newsletters, and this one happened to be from About.Com. It gave links for stores that have to do with different disabilities that your child may have, or other charities you may want to help. There are shops for FAS and Autism, pediatric cancer and AIDS, and many more. You can read the full list here. Your purchase will help the different causes.
Adoption.com has an on-line store full of gift ideas. There are books, jewelry, information about different countries, clothing, artwork, and much more.
Think of the things that you like, and consider whether your partner would like the same thing. Many men like to receive massages. Surprise him by leaving a flower or a love note in his car, or his favorite chocolates.
If money is an issue, as it is for many of us, try some home made gifts.
• Decorate a box or jar, and fill it with strips of paper that says something you love about your partner, or a good memory that you have.
• Create a scrapbook of pictures of just the two of you.
• Have a picnic on the floor after you put the kids to bed.
• Make a CD of your favorite songs.
• Print out the words to your special song on nice paper, and frame it.
• Bake a chocolate chip cookie in a pizza pan, then decorate it with frosting. Much less expensive than the ones you see in the mall, and it will mean more since you did it.
While it may sound corny, sometimes home made gifts are the best. For our anniversary my husband made me a giant wind chime. For my birthday a couple of weeks later (8-17), he selected bible verses that were the 8th chapter and 17 verse of different books of the Bible. He printed the verses over beautiful pictures and then framed it. They were beautiful gifts, and the time he spent on them was obvious.
Our Valentine’s Day will not be a night out at a romantic dinner. We will be supervising 30 plus kids from our church as they do a service project at a thrift store. Instead, we will have our night out on Sunday as more than 20 couples from our church with gather for dinner and fellowship.
Sammy will be home for the weekend, and it is scheduled to be his last weekend home for a few weeks as he transitions to a treatment foster home, so the majority of the weekend will be about the kids. Needless to say, Valentine’s Day doesn’t have the same romantic impact anymore. At the same time, we need to take the time to nurture our relationships, and remember that we are people, and a couple, in addition to being parents.
