For the past several years I've only bought Christmas gifts for my youngest grandkids. My kids told me to stop buying for them..."them" being my sons and daughter. My wife and I aren't struggling, but my kids are all doing really well and they said they'd rather we spend on ourselves. And it was really more an order than just a comment.
The youngest grandkids are 18 and 16 now, and I've lost track of their interests and hobbies and fashions, which frequently evolve, so I decided to just make a small, timeless gift for each of them this year...bookmarks.
They'll be small animals that look like road-kill...because they'll be squished in a book...and I'm making them out of cloth. Ariel's will be a flat grey rat in a little pink polka-dot skirt. I'm making the rat's body from a grey fleece sweatshirt I don't wear anymore, with the fuzzy side out so she'll look furry. Kirk's is a flattened gecko wearing an orange and blue vest, the colors of his favorite NFL team. Geckos are his favorite reptile...dead or alive, I s'pose.
I've got most the pieces cut out, but because these things are pretty small and my hands have gotten pretty inarticulate, I decided to use fabric glue on some of it. Probly most of it, actually. But they look awesome so far. Kind of creepy, but I think they're really funny. And I'm sure Kirk and Ariel will think so, too....you know, after the initial "OMG, Grampa, what the...?!"
