Capability:Mom and I both agree that we get the SAME thing for our own mothers and mother-in-law. In my case, my mom and mother-in-law are friends and live a half hour away from each other. It would not be a stretch to imagine them discussing their gifts during casual conversation and feelings would get hurt, I fear, if the presents differed.
These personalized, “fancy” return address stampers make me so happy. I use them for the return address on envelopes but also for stamping inside of books that I loan out. If your price point is $50 ($40 plus shipping), it also makes great teacher and tutor gifts and/or gifts for family members.
My only contribution for Clove Fruit is this: You can purchase whole cloves at an ethnic grocery store to save money. Indian or Chinese grocery stores will have whole cloves in bulk packaged in plastic bags which is less expensive just because of the utilitarian packaging alone! This makes a great gift for extended family, teachers, and neighbors.
My cookbook is cracked with the pages falling out, I love this cookbook so much. And the page that this recipe is on has food stains on it galore. Nigella raves about this granola which she discovered on an U.S. book tour. I have made it and given it out as gifts. True story: I usually give this to teachers as a Whatever-I-Made-A-Huge-Batch-And-This-Is-Healthy gift. My kids’ Kindergarten teacher (extraordinaire) is usually on the list even when we don’t have her, but sometimes we run out. A neighbor gets it instead or I need a hostess gift. So one day she tells me that she is in the teacher’s lounge and recognizes the granola that my middle kid’s 2nd grade teacher was eating and said, “Is a gift from Pragmatic Mom? I love that granola. Can I have a handful?”
First of all, I want to confess that I am not a board game person. I do occasionally get forced into playing board games with my kids so I am familiar with some of these games but it’s always a balancing act to play with them as I am asked to modulate my play: “Play hard against me, mom, but not too hard. You’re playing too easy against me.”
The Mixed Up Files of Middle Grade Authors blog has a great post on dragons that preempted this post but I actually had been working on this for several weeks. There is something magical about dragons and I’m glad that some kids can keep the magic alive. I’ve gathered my favorite dragon books that range in age from picture books to young adult. What is your favorite dragon book? Please share!
Administered by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award was first given to its namesake in 1954. The award, a bronze medal, honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.