Gift Giving Success

Despite my apparent failures in selecting gifts for my son, I am a good gift-giver (right? right? any past Smiling Mama gift recipient want to agree here?). I thought I'd share with you a few of the gifts I was particularly pleased to give this year.

My Mother-in-law
I love buying gifts for my mother-in-law not only because I feel like she will be very happy with pretty much anything, but also because I like to try to spoil her a bit. She works very, very hard and is very careful with her money. She does everything for my father-in-law and raised a great son in my husband.

When we visited her back in October we started talking about Coach because the factory she works at gives their employees (almost all women) a $300 Coach handbag after they've been there for 30 years. (First, can you even imagine working the line for 30 years? And, second, I think they will be sorely disapointed when they see how small a $300 Coach handbag is!). We each commented that we'd love to have one but would never be able to spend that much on a purse.

When she asked for a wallet for Christmas, I knew I had to get her a Coach wallet. Luckily, there's a Coach outlet store close to my parents' house. My sister and I had a lot of fun shopping there right before Christmas. I snagged this wallet (slightly different colors, probably last year's line or something) for about $55. I know that is a ton of money for a wallet but it is a true steal for Coach and, most importantly, she adored it! Simply because I couldn't resist, I also got her a little Coach key chain for about $12.

My Brother
My brother is a true challenge to buy for. He's incredibly picky! He literally gives my parents links to websites with the specific item number for what he wants. They don't dare to veer from his suggestions! Last year I scored big with this very cool Brooklyn print. So, this year I thought I'd continue with the city/art theme. He's living in Philly and met the woman of his dreams there. He's hopefully proposing soon (and let's all pray we didn't scare her off over New Year's!) so when I found this fabulous Philly Love goco print by artsharkdesigns I knew it would be perfect. The print was $15 and I put it in a nice black frame from Target. He--and his girlfriend--loved it. Another success! (Note: The artist also has similar love prints set in many, many more cities so you should definitely check out her shop!)

My Niece
I have a really sweet 10 year old niece on Abel's side of the family and I just loved the gifts I got her this year. She's very creative and so I worked around two creative themes for her--writing and cooking. First, for writing, I got her a Rhyming Dictionary. Have you ever used one? I'm telling you, if you know a young person who likes to write poetry or lyrics this is a must-have. To give her a place to store all that creativity, she also received a lovely lined journal which I personalized with some scrap booking letters. Second, for cooking, we got her a cookbook designed for kids and to go along with it, this beautiful apron on Etsy from Berkshire Hostess. I wrapped that up with some cute heart-shaped cookie cutters tied on the package.

She composed a really lovely poem/song later that evening and her father told me that she's been watching cooking shows lately. So, I'll count these gifts as a big success!